Dakota Staton (original) (raw)
DAKOTA STATON THE LATE, LATE SHOW
George Shearing said, "Dakota is dynamic! To hear her sing for the first time is to joyously discover one of the finest jazz singers of our day." The Staton sound creates new meaning for familiar lyrics, turning old favorites into fresh and exciting musical experiences.
PRESS QUOTES
"Dakota Staton's tough, sassy brand of jazz-blues bridges the gap between two generations. She is a stylistic link between the earthiness of Dinah Washington and Big Maybelle and Chaka Khan's note-bending pop-funk iconoclasm." -THE NEW YORK TIMES
"A dominating presence, Staton seems to have improved with age -- perhaps, one suspects, because whatever hard knocks she's endured in life have been put to use in her music." -THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE
"Dakota Staton strutted on stage, seducing the audience with her charm and charisma as one song after another took us on a journey from don-and-out desperate blues to heavely-inspired jazz ballads of the power of love." -THE PHOENIX, NY
REVIEW - CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Blues-Ballad's real beauty comes through with Staton
By Larry Kart Entertainment writer
Almost everything that Dakota Staton sings is a blues-ballad or becomes one in her hands. And since she sings that type of song as well as anyone around, perhaps this would be a good time to look at that vital musical form.
Epitomized by "Since I Fell for You' and "Please Send Me Someone to Love," the blues-ballad is rarely, if ever, an actual 12-bar blues; nor is it a pop tune with a bluesy feel or subject matter, a la "One for My Baby" or "Blues in the Night."
Instead the blues-ballad is a song in which the emotional toughness and realism of the blues invades and conquers the world of pop romanticism, with the assault always being launched from the blues' native soil.
A good example of the style is Bill Doggett's "No More in Life," and Staton sang it to perfection -- telling its pleading tale of lost love with a kind of steely pathos, which then resolved as it must into the blues-ballad's typical cry of defiance and release: "No more in life/will I ever be weak."
Yet what gives the blues-ballad its lasting appeal, and what makes Staton such a potent singer of those songs, is the aura of doubleness that finally prevails.
Always open to the pull of sentiment, the song and the singer fall into the same trap each time--as though romance implied that one has to be weak. So even though toughness and realism tend to win out in the end, the real story lies in the constant seesaw between surrender and survival, helplessly wounded passion and self-contained relief.
And since that emotional seesaw is built into Staton's voice, the blues-ballad mood can be heard even when she sings a straight pop tune like "Love for Sale" or "Mean to Me"-- as their familiar, love-torn sentiments take on an almost brutal edge, while at the same time her bristling sense of swing injects an air of "I couldn't care less" cheerfulness.
A dominating presence, Staton seems to have improved with age perhaps, one suspects, because whatever hard knocks she's endured in life have been put to use in her music. The results are entertaining to be sure, but no one could mistake the fact that, as in the blues-ballad, reality pervades the whole show.