When the jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant was profiled in The New Yorker, Wynton Marsalis described her as the kind of talent who comes along only “once in a generation or two.” Salvant’s work is rooted in jazz—in the tradition of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan and Abbey Lincoln—and she has won three Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album. But her interests and her repertoire reach across eras and continents. She studied Baroque music and jazz at conservatory, and performs songs in French, Occitan, and Haitian Kreyòl. “I think I have the spirit of a kind of a radio d.j. slash curator,” she tells David Remnick. “It’s almost like making a mixtape for someone and only putting deep cuts.” And even when singing the standards, she aims “to find the gems that haven’t been sung and sung and sung over and over again.” During a summer tour, she visited the studio at WNYC to perform “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” made famous by Barbra Streisand; “Can She Excuse My Wrongs,” by John Dowland, the English composer of the Elizabethan era; and “Moon Song,” an original from Salvant’s album “Ghost Song.”This segment originally aired on May 31, 2024.
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This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
This is The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
Tell me not to live, just sit and putter. Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter.
Cecile McLaurin Salvant is a jazz singer, and she's one of the top singers around today. Someone on the level of Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. But Salvant's repertoire and her approach to music are completely her own. A standard from the American songbook might be followed by a tune from hundreds of years ago. and across an ocean. I once went to see her expecting, you know, how high the moon.
But the first thing out of her was a century-old murder ballad, and it lasted about a half an hour long. Wynton Marsalis called her the kind of talent who comes along only once in a generation or two. Cecile McLaurin-Salvant is performing at jazz festivals all over the country this summer. I got a chance to talk with her last summer, and she came to perform at our studio at WNYC.
once, right, sir? Ooh, life is juicy, juicy, and you see, I've got to take my bite, sir. Get ready for me, love, because I'm a comer. I've simply got to march. My heart's a drummer. Don't bring around the clattering. cone should bang. One throw, that bell will go clang. Eye on the target and wham. One shot, one gunshot and bam. Hey, Mr. Ford. I'm fanned out. Your turn at bat, sir.
At least I didn't fake it. Hat, sir. I guess I didn't make it. Get ready for me, love, cause I'm a comer. I've simply gotta march. My heart's a drummer. Nobody, no, nobody is gonna rain on my
Oh, man.
I don't know what I did there. Wow.
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