Fiddling around: Jenny Scheinman. Photo by Wendy Andringa.
By Todd Lavoie
Jenny Scheinman can do it all. The Humboldt County-bred Brooklynite has already worn plenty of hats – violinist, composer, bandleader, session musician, collaborator – but with her recently released eponymous disc on Koch Records, she’s donned perhaps her most impressive chapeau of them all: vocalist. While hardly a newbie to recording – having recorded a handful of avant-garde jazz albums over the years, including a couple for the venerable Tzadik label – Scheinman’s vocal debut swings with honestly blindsiding levels of “whoa, where did this come from?!”
The biggest surprise? Jenny Scheinman isn’t jazz at all, but rather a rustic collection of old-timey country, rambling blues, and rockabilly swagger. Yes, there is an improvisational spirit to these recordings – thus revealing her deep-rooted jazz connections – but overall the focus is on gorgeously twanged-out vocals and faithful evocations of the old south. It’s a mighty auspicious first step to the mic, bursting with the confidence of someone who has been singing all her life, of someone who lives and breathes every word that leaves her lips. As far as first introductions go, it’s just as quietly revelatory as Gillian Welch’s Revival (Almo Sounds/Acony).
I should also mention here that Scheinman actually has just released two albums at once – the other, Crossing the Field (also Koch) is a purely instrumental affair, which I haven’t heard yet. I’m sure it’s wonderful, but for now I’ll stick to discussing the self-titled record. And since it’s getting touted in some circles as her “vocals album,” I might as well get right to it and heap gushing praise upon her comfortingly familiar but still uniquely expressive voice.