Judy Wexler Releases "NO WONDER," Her 7th Album

Over her 20-year career, JUDY WEXLER has earned the reputation as one of the most compelling West Coast jazz vocalists. Known for her warm voice and affective interpretation of lyrics, her repertoire has been replete with songs that are off-the-beaten path. On 2021’s Back to the Garden, she covered 60’s pop tunes with hip jazz arrangements. In 2019, she presented rarely heard songs by contemporary jazz artists that she felt deserved to become modern jazz standards on Crowded Heart. As Dan Bilawsky wrote on All About Jazz, “Judy Wexler is more than a mere singer of songs. She’s an actress, mood painter, song archaeologist, and vocalist par excellence.”

Now on NO WONDER, her 7th and newest recording, for the first time, she lends her sumptuous voice and highly personal interpretations to some of the finest songs from the Great American Songbook.

Based in Los Angeles, Wexler has headlined at performing arts centers and leading jazz clubs both nationally and internationally. She has performed at jazz festivals in Montreal, Dubai, Tel Aviv, San Jose, and Temecula, where she opened for the legendary Mose Allison. And she has sung at noted jazz venues in Istanbul, Montreal, Boston, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., among many other regional clubs across the country. She sings regularly In New York City, including shows Birdland and several return performances at The Blue Note.

Wexler was featured twice on NPR Weekend Edition with Susan Stamberg, who said, “Based on the evidence, Judy Wexler can sing almost anything.” The Absolute Sound featured her in their cover story, “13 Female Jazz Vocalists You Need to Hear.” Her earlier albums include What I See (2013), Under a Painted Sky (2011), Dreams & Shadows (2008), and Easy on the Heart (2005). All of her albums charted at the top of the national JazzWeek radio chart, with two albums charting on Billboard’s Traditional Jazz Albums chart. 

The project for NO WONDER kicked off when Wexler asked her longtime pianist and arranger JEFF COLELLA to write arrangements inspired by his two-horn treatment of “Delilah” (with new lyrics and renamed “Dreams & Shadows,” the title track to her 2008 album). “I’ve always loved that arrangement,” she says. “I told Jeff I wanted a whole album with that kind of feel, and he gave me exactly what I asked for.”  

These arrangements make an ideal match with the program Wexler wanted to present. “I’ve never done an album of standards,” she points out, “and I wanted to give some love to some of the hipper ones.” Colella is an accomplished accompanist and improviser who spent many years as musical director for Lou Rawls. Having worked with Wexler on scores of shows around the country, he knows how to showcase her vocal qualities and crafts arrangements that add depth and color to her already emotionally incisive vocals.  

Wexler and Colella, who co-produced this album, brought on board some of the busiest A-list musicians in Los Angeles, including multi-instrumentalist DANNY JANKLOW (Stevie Wonder, Wayne Shorter, Burt Bacharach), multi-instrumentalist BOB SHEPPARD (Joni Mitchell, Chick Corea, Freddie Hubbard), trumpeter JAY JENNINGS (Snarky Puppy), guitarist LARRY KOONSE (John Patitucci, Luciana Souza, Mel Torme), bassist GABE DAVIS (Arturo Sandoval, Buddy Guy), and drummer STEVE HASS (Christian McBride, The Manhattan Transfer, John Scofield).

Wexler is a consummate storyteller who focuses on subtle twists of phrasing and use of dynamics as well as creative melodic variations, all in service to the song. She opens the album with the title track, “No Wonder,” one of the two outliers on the album, written and arranged by vocalist and songwriter Luciana Souza. Wexler says, “Luciana is a friend, and I’ve long admired her amazing output of gorgeous albums along with her brilliant songwriting. I love this song’s irrepressible energy, and it’s the second Souza original I’ve covered after “Circus Life” from my album, Crowded Heart.”

Colella’s arrangement of Michel Legrand’s “The Summer Knows" has a noirish feel that works beautifully with Wexler’s warm voice, saturated with longing. The writing on “You Stepped Out of a Dream” recalls the West Coast cool of the 1950s, a resonant beacon for lifelong “California girl” Wexler, while the delightful “Never Will I Marry” basks in the synergy between Wexler and ensemble. First performed by Anthony Perkins in the stage show “Greenwillow,” the recording by Cannonball Adderley and Nancy Wilson reached icon status.

Wexler has loved Kitty Margolis' treatment of Cedar Walton’s hard bop instrumental, “Firm Roots,” for which she wrote original lyrics and retitled the vocal version, “Firm Roots (Are What You Need to Win).” Wexler sings the rapid-fire, uplifting lyrics with ease, and the track features burning solos by Jennings on trumpet and Hass on drums. Henry Mancini’s “Slow Hot Wind” was first an instrumental titled “Lujon” until Norman Gimbel added his suggestive lyrics. The evocative arrangement features Sheppard’s sensuous soprano sax solo.

Wexler is a longtime fan of singer/songwriter Blossom Dearie and asked trumpeter, composer and arranger Brian Swartz to write a swinging arrangement for “I Wish You Love,” which also features a playful soli with Wexler and Janklow’s tenor sax.

Leonard Cohen wrote “Dance Me to the End of Love” (the second outlier in the repertoire) about the Jewish musicians in the Nazi concentration camps who were forced to perform as their fellow prisoners were marched to their deaths. Wexler asked Colella to arrange the song in a Klezmer style, and it features Sheppard’s plaintive clarinet and a captivating guitar solo by Koonse.

Wexler truly captures the sweetness and heartfelt depth of finding true love on a pair of songs first debuted by Nat King Cole -- “That Sunday, That Summer” and “A Weaver of Dreams,” both arrangements featuring the pairing of Janklow’s flute and alto flute respectively, and Jenning’s flugelhorn. Wexler closes the album with “The Night We Called It a Day,” a song that’s been recorded by artists as diverse as Frank Sinatra and Bob Dylan. She is accompanied only by the rhythm section, with her wistful vocals underscored by Colella’s sensitive, spare piano treatment.

On NO WONDER, Wexler unveils a range of emotions with her straightforward blend of storytelling and subtle melodic variations and rhythmic shifts. But that has always been her strength. Her captivating vocals, supported by sophisticated, swinging arrangements, and the top-notch musicianship by a first-class band make NO WONDER another album by Judy Wexler that gets better with every listen.

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NO WONDER will be released digitally on January 24, 2025 on Jewel City Jazz/A-Train Entertainment, and physical copies will be available at Amazon, Bandcamp, and all retail outlets.

Online:

Judywexler.com

Facebook.com/judywexler.music

IG: @judywexler

BlueSky: @judywexler.bsky.social

Judywexler.bandcamp.com/album/no-wonder

A-train.com