Clay Jazz: Press

The Clay Jazz Band: 2, 3, 4 (Duos Trios Quartets)

This new offering by the team of Clay and Rausch plus rhythm, is a baker's dozen of mostly standard fare from the jazz canon. The couple, who play extensively in the Five College region of Western Massachusetts, have wisely created a package that is representative of their work in three different formats. A wide range of versatility is on hand with the use of flute, vocal and guitar alternately providing the lead voice. Additionally, the program is well paced and further varied with the addition of bass and drums or bass only.

From the opening strains of the Carl Fischer ballad You've Changed, it becomes quickly evident that vocalist Sarah Clay is a musician of considerable experience, with a penchant for creating interesting phrases with material that could become clichéd in less capable hands. Her dual role as flutist in the band no doubt enhances her improvisational skills and vice versa. Her solo work on flute is every bit as skillful, so that it would be hard to say which of these roles is primary.

Guitarist Karl Rausch is likewise a seasoned vet on his instrument. Not an especially emotional man off the bandstand, his playing, particularly on the ballad selections, gives voice to the composer’s vision in every case. He is especially evocative when playing in a support role on Sarah's vocal offerings. Rausch includes an excellent original composition called Tempest that he has been playing for several years now, leaving the listener hoping he will do more of this in the future.

Bassist and stalwart musical soul Mark Dunlap is a valued addition to this recording. Always enthusiastic and fastidious about the music, Mark's presence is so much more than that of a rhythm section player. Drummer Seth Hoffsommer provides great feel and propulsion to the quartet, particularly on the Latin-tinged Bésame Mucho and Gentle Rain. The recording of Duos Trios Quartets was nicely done by Doug Hewitt's Watercourse Recording in Amherst.

Richard Mayer

May 2006

Singing through her flute: Sarah Clay uses voice, instrument to reveal jazz stories.

[Review of "Clay Jazz Standards", CD released in 2005]

Clay is adept at both vocal and flute renditions of jazz standards, switching easily between her own vocal cords and the flute's elegantly curved mouthpiece. The way the flute and voice are two parts of the same expression is clear when you listen to Clay sing "Girl from Ipanema," the opening track on the recent CD she recorded with guitarist and musical partner Karl Rausch, then hear her follow it with another oft-recorded Brazilian hit, Louis Bonfi's "Mañana de Carnival" from "Black Orpheus" on her flute.
She and Rausch go for big-time standards north and south. Besides the Brazialian goodies, they perform an excellent tribute to Miles Davis in "All Blues" from his "Kind of Blue" album, and Clay delivers an impressive version of Thelonious Monk's "Round Midnight," offering the listener the unusual opportunity to groove on a Monk composition with primary attention to a vocal line, and no piano in the mix. Even for a classically trained voice, this is a challenging work, with long phrases that leave a singer nowhere to hide.
Another delight on that disc is the Romburg-Hammerstein standard "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise." The duo take turns with lovely, leisurely riffs, Clay playing a delightful series of downward triplets that evokes Herbie Mann, Rausch smoothly alternating single notes with cool two-string harmonies.