Adia Ledbetter
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Adia Ledbetter

Bronxville, New York, United States | SELF

Bronxville, New York, United States | SELF
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"Take 2: Rendezvous with Yesterdays"

Adia Ledbetter - Take 2: Rendezvous With Yesterdays 3/4
O's Notes: Take 2 continues the path established by Ledbetter as she reflects on her past to deliver an optimistic view of life ahead! Her song selection is good and the supporting musicians are strong. It has been eight years since her debut and she continues transforming classics as well as presenting some of her own works. Her signature is unique and she is determined to succeed in this space. With a lot of drive and a very capable band, she's in the mix.

--
D. Oscar Groomes
- O's Place Jazz Magazine


"Take 2: Rendezvous with Yesterdays"

Adia Ledbetter - Take 2: Rendezvous With Yesterdays 3/4
O's Notes: Take 2 continues the path established by Ledbetter as she reflects on her past to deliver an optimistic view of life ahead! Her song selection is good and the supporting musicians are strong. It has been eight years since her debut and she continues transforming classics as well as presenting some of her own works. Her signature is unique and she is determined to succeed in this space. With a lot of drive and a very capable band, she's in the mix.

--
D. Oscar Groomes
- O's Place Jazz Magazine


"Ledbetter Pays Homage to Local Jazz"

DURHAM -- The title track to vocalist Adia Ledbetter's new CD "Take 2: Rendezvous with Yesterdays" contains this original lyric, a tribute not just to American jazz history but to Durham jazz history: "Jazz is before me/ Paving the way for me/ To live out all my dreams/ Ella, Sarah, Betty, Carmen, and Dinah / Diane, Carmen, Lois, Natalie, Nnenna and Eve … I am remembering great jazz queens."

Local jazz fans will probably automatically pick out the references to Lois Deloatch, Nnenna Freelon and Eve Cornelious. Later in this tune, which is a combination of song and spoken work penned by Ledbetter, she pays homage to the late pianist Yusuf Salim (she also dedicates her arrangement of the standard "These Foolish Things" to Salim).

The tributes are appropriate for Ledbetter because she grew up listening to and later performing with local musicians. When Salim led his weekly Brother Yusuf and friends sessions, her father Freeman Ledbetter was a constant presence on bass.

Adia Ledbetter heard the music at the venues where her father played, and at home. She remembers as a child watching her father, Salim and other musicians rehearse in the garage. "I would watch the rehearsals and practices when I was supposed to be in bed," Ledbetter said in a phone interview.

Eventually, she showed a talent and interesting in singing -- she recalled leaving the movie "Coming to America" and singing the melodies -- and eventually, overcoming shyness, she began singing at the sessions with her father and Salim.

She has followed up her first CD, titled "First Take," with "Take 2." Her father played on the initial release, returns on "Take 2," and will join her and several other ensemble members for a New Year's Eve performance at Beyu Caffe in Durham.

In addition to two originals -- the title track and "Only One," a duet with pianist Ed Paolantonio -- Ledbetter arranges a number of standards and classics on "Take 2." She adds new opening lyrics to the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II classic "Can't Help Lovin' dat Man of Mine," and slows the tempo to make this tune a moving ballad. Ledbetter said she used to sing the song with Salim, and for Martha Flowers, her first voice teacher. "Part of the whole album was about looking into the past. [This tune] was a song I used to perform with Yusuf Salim when I was younger," she said. "I love the bluesy feel to it, and the emotion that you have to have to bring that song to life."

Some other standards on this new album that she brings to life are "Darn that Dream," "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," and "Lady Bird." About the title tune, Ledbetter said, "My goal was to do something that's not on a lot of jazz CDs, to have something different. … The underlying chords are linked directly to 'Basin Street Blues.'"

Ledbetter has an undergraduate music degree from North Carolina Central University, and a master's in music from the Queens College Jazz Studies Program in New York. She divides her time now between her native Durham and New York. Two influences she cites are Carmen McRae, whose recording of Thelonious Monk compositions ("Carmen Sings Monk") spurred her to explore jazz, and Natalie Cole, whose recordings of standards also spurred her to listen to more jazz.

Salim and her father remain constant influences, she said. Having grown up listening to a bass player, Ledbetter said in any performance the bass in an invaluable harmonic guide. "So if the piano player wants to play a lot of notes, I can listen to the bass, and even with various drum rhythms going on, the bass is going to be the foundation." Her father's bass playing not only lays the foundation, but depending on what note in the chord he is playing, "he's telling me exactly where we are in the song, and where we're going," she said.

About Salim, Ledbetter said she feels "very spoiled to have worked with him. He could play wherever you were, find wherever you were." She told a story about a time when she was performing with him, and called out a key signature for the song. Salim misunderstood what she said, but once he heard Ledbetter sing a different pitch, he made a seamless transition into the song. "Without me saying anything, he knew how to get there," she said. "Any singer, from the most novice to the most advanced, he could make you sound good."

By Clif Bellamy - Herald Sun Newspaper


"Press Release"

Take 2: Rendezvous With Yesterday, the sophomore effort by Adia Ledbetter, returns to the spotlight one of the most gifted young vocalists in jazz today. Following up on the alluring promise of her well-received debut disc, First Take, Ledbetter demonstrates her continuing development not only as a superb singer, but as a talented lyricist/arranger/composer as well. A native of Durham, North Carolina, Adia began her love affair with music, like many jazz greats, singing in her church choir and developed her God given talents in school, receiving her BA from North Carolina Central University and finally earning a Masters Degree in the Queens College Jazz Studies program founded by NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Heath (then headed by Heath’s successor trumpeter Michael Mossman), studying improvisation with saxophonist Antonio Hart. Further tutelage with young veterans Lenora Zenzali Helm and J.D. Walters has invested her sound with a new found maturity that is sure to garner her the attention she now so richly deserves.
Following recognition as an outstanding performer by Downbeat magazine in 2006, Ledbetter was chosen to participate in the Kennedy Center Jazz Ahead International Jazz Residency and Performance Program. She has since gone on to spread her sound in concert and club appearances in New York City, Washington, DC. and various venues in her home state of North Carolina. The album First Take featured the singer with Generations, a straight ahead quartet that included veteran artists, bassist Freeman Ledbetter and the late pianist Yusuf Salim (an important mentor to Ledbetter and many other young Durhamites). On Take Two the vocalist fronts a new group with pianist Ed Paolantonio, drummer Orlandus Perry and Freeman Ledbetter back on bass. In addition there are two intimate duet performances with guitarist Justin C. Martin.
Take 2: Rendezvous With Yesterday opens with a medley of Ledbetter’s own composition “Closer” and the Great American Songbook classic “You And The Night And The Music” -- an ingenious bringing together of the old and the new that is at the very heart of Adia’s musical personality. Opening with “Closer,” a seductive tome that begins as an enticing voice-bass duet with the composer singing over a Latin tinged habanera rhythm before becoming a soulfully intoned straight ahead swinger that segues seamlessly into the Arthur Schwartz/Howard Dietz standard with the shared message of two people brought together by the sounds of music. The rhythm section cooking, Ledbetter sings with accomplished authority, sharing the spotlight with pianist Paolantonio, who solos convincingly.
Ledbetter takes “Darn That Dream” at an achingly slow tempo that would pose much difficulty to most young singers, but which she handles with laudable assurance as she takes her time exploring the lyrics’ many subtle nuances. Displaying a clear attentiveness to diction and dynamics, Adia sings with a heartfelt honesty that makes this telling of the song’s sad story moving and utterly believable.
Beginning “Beautiful Love” with an acapella recitation of her own additional lyrics serving as a verse to introduce the well known words to the classic melody, revealing an innate sense of rhythm and flawless tone, Ledbetter is then dramatically joined by the trio for the chorus on this bright Ledbetter arrangement that includes an unaccompanied scat interlude that references the cadences of “Autumn Leaves” as it leads into piano and bass solos that give it a truly swinging jazz character that culminates with the singer going out on an extended high note.
Ledbetter again contributes her own knowing words as an introduction to her powerfully moving reading of “Can’t Help Loving Dat Man Of Mine.” Exuding both sadness and strength in this most personal interpretation of the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein evergreen, Adia’s voice faintly hearkens to her Southern roots, adding to the integrity of her performance.
“I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” is a duo outing by Ledbetters – Freeman and Adia—with the former’s briskly walking bass accompanying first the latter’s opening scat chorus and then underpinning her measured singing of Dorothy Fields’ famous lyrics to the popular Jimmy McHugh melody before his own solo that precedes her zestful outchorus.
Tadd Dameron’s “Ladybird” is given a fresh new treatment here with Ledbetter’s appealing arrangement of the bebop classic beginning as a bossa nova with a sensual recital of the seldom heard lyric before going into a scatting straight ahead chorus. Appropriately, piano, bass and drums each get a turn on this one.
“I’m Gonna Laugh You Right Out Of My Life” is an intimate duet between Ledbetter and the fine guitarist Justin C. Martin, the former evincing a delicate vulnerability in her voice while singing the song’s melancholic message, but without sacrificing the ironic tone that betrays a deeper understanding of the sad but hopeful lyric.
Ledbetter’s title track is a confessio - JazziJua


"Adia Ledbetter"

ADIA LEDBETTER/Take 2-Rendevous With Yesterday: Swinging, hip chick that takes jazz vocal to church with some civil rights jazz accents running as an under current. Soulful and loaded with personality, she's young enough that she can only visit the supper clubs of the past in her mind, but she certainly would have lit up the night in those boites. Nicely riding a retro/neuvo tip, Ledbetter is on the right track and has a load of solid entertainment for jazz vocal fans that like it with some zest and swing. - Midwest Record


"Adia Ledbetter"

Adia Ledbetter's new CD ''Rendezvous With Yesterday'' could easily be renamed ''Rendezvous With Today'' in that her whole focus is geared to the wonderful vocal world of modern mainstream jazz. Everything is contained within Adia's fine CD project: Emotion, musical energy, interacting melodic-harmonic phrasing, etc. which gives the disc an enormously vital rhythmic pulse and delivery. The combined expressive quality of her voice as well as the panoply of interplay supplied by her gifted sidemen, moves her music smoothly with a kind of assertive joy as it were such that we her attentive listeners are edified by her artistry. Last, Adia has given us several musical 'themes' to contemplate quite admirably within her new project to help us experience the wondrous ethos of strong vocal/instrumental jazz.

George W. Carroll
- Nite Life Exchange


"Adia Ledbetter"

Adia Ledbetter's new CD ''Rendezvous With Yesterday'' could easily be renamed ''Rendezvous With Today'' in that her whole focus is geared to the wonderful vocal world of modern mainstream jazz. Everything is contained within Adia's fine CD project: Emotion, musical energy, interacting melodic-harmonic phrasing, etc. which gives the disc an enormously vital rhythmic pulse and delivery. The combined expressive quality of her voice as well as the panoply of interplay supplied by her gifted sidemen, moves her music smoothly with a kind of assertive joy as it were such that we her attentive listeners are edified by her artistry. Last, Adia has given us several musical 'themes' to contemplate quite admirably within her new project to help us experience the wondrous ethos of strong vocal/instrumental jazz.

George W. Carroll
- Nite Life Exchange


"Take 2: Rendezvous with Yesterdays"

Take 2: Rendezvous With Yesterdays is a journey through songs of yesteryear with some interesting personal detours thrown into the itinerary from vocalist Adia Ledbetter. Eight years after her first album, Ledbetter returns and uses her sophomore effort as a descriptive odyssey of where she came from, where she is and where she is going.
As the album gets underway, with a medley of Ledbetter's "Closer" and "You And The Night And The Music," she seems to be a bit hesitant with her musical intentions. Thankfully, she loosens up by the end of the performance and it's smooth sailing from that point on. Pianist Ed Paolantonio is central to the success of "Darn That Dream," providing just the right touches to this tender performance, but the real eye-opener on the album is "Beautiful Love." Shifting entrances and focal points characterize this winning performance. The song begins with a cappella vocals, gains a lift with the band entrance, narrows the lens to focus on Ledbetter during her scatting and ends up zooming in on Freeman Ledbetter for his enjoyable bass solo. It's difficult to bring something new to this song—and even more difficult to bring something new and musically rewarding into this music—but Ledbetter succeeds on both counts.

Once Ledbetter reaches the mid-point on the album, she moves toward more intimate environs with several duo performances. Both Ledbetters deliver their A-game on "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," with sublime scat work, fine bass soloing and unique vocal phrasing as part of the package. Ledbetter's voice becomes more focused and gentle at the outset of "I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out Of My Life"—a duet with guitarist Justin C. Martin—but she proves to be in control throughout, adding subtle nuances to her delivery. The title track—a largely-spoken word sermon and speech on self-realization, the state of the world, the great vocalists of jazz and giving thanks to those who have helped Ledbetter along the way—might have worked better as a liner note essay than a fully realized piece of music, but Ledbetter forges on with the help of Martin. "These Foolish Things," beginning with a waltzing swing sound—a la "All Blues—and ending up in a more excitable feel, is a real treat and the album ends on a personal note with Ledbetter's "Only One." Take 2: Rendezvous With Yesterdays might rely on songs of the past, but it showcases a bright talent of tomorrow, in the form of vocalist Adia Ledbetter.
By Dan Bilawsky - All About Jazz


Discography

First Take 2001
Take 2: Rendezvous With Yesterdays

Photos

Bio

Adia Ledbetter, a native Durhamite, has been singing all her life. Starting out in church and school, she began taking voice lessons in high school. While earning a degree in Exercise and Sports Science from UNCG, she had an opportunity to travel and sing jazz with pianist Yusuf Salim and bassist Freeman Ledbetter.

In order to continue training and pursue her singing career, Adia returned to school and graduated from North Carolina Central University with degrees in Jazz Studies and Music Education. Her performing experience includes opening for such jazz luminaries as Hubert Laws, Nnenna Freelon, Jimmy Heath, Grady Tate, Freddie Cole Antonio Hart and the Branford Marsalis Quartet. Most recently, Adia has studied voice under the tutelage of Lenora Zenzalai Helm and J. D. Walter.

After teaching music for one year in the Durham Public Schools, Adia is currently pursuing a Master of Jazz Studies Degree at Queens College in New York, NY.

Adia was chosen as an outstanding performer by Downbeat magazine in June 2006 and was selected to participate in the 2006 Kennedy Center Betty Carter Jazz Ahead International Jazz Residency and Performance Project. In 2007 she was listed as a “vocalist to watch” in the NC Independent Weekly. In 2008 she was chosen as an Emerging Artist by the Durham Arts Council.

Adia’s debut recording, “First Take”, features Generations, a straight ahead jazz quartet spanning two generations. She has just released her sophomore recording, “Take 2: Rendezvous with Yesterdays”. This recording features her own unique arrangements of jazz standards.