Rachelle Garniez & The Fortunate Few
Country of origin:
U.S.
Type of music generally:
Eclectic jazz, with touches of cabaret. Offbeat.
Status:
Most recent release, Who's Counting (2015)
See also:
Rachelle Garniez's site
Comparisons:
Edith Piaf, Astrud Gilberto, Jane Siberry, Maria Muldaur, Victoria Williams, Ten Wheel Drive, Rickie Lee Jones
Covers/own material:
Own, occasionally co-writes
General comments:
Nostalgic, romantic jazz with cabaret touches. Wry stories set to cool music. (stjarnell@yahoo.com)When I first heard the Crazy Blood, I was asked whether I concurred with the perception of Garniez's genre as "jazz, with a touch of cabaret." The first time I listened to the CD, it seemed unlike any jazz or cabaret singer with which I am familiar. But on my second listening, some weeks later, it became apparent to me that there are elements of both genres in her music—but these are only part of an eclectic, offbeat, imaginative, and unique mix. (mapravat@prairienet.org)
Recommended first album:
Any
Recordings:
- Serenade City (1997)
- Crazy Blood (2001)
- Luckyday (2004)
- Melusine Years (2007)
- Sad-Dead-Alive-Happy (2011)
- Greetings From Dreamsville (compilation, 2013)
- Who's Counting (2015)
Serenade City
Release info:
1997—real cool records, PO Box 606 Prince Street Station, NYC, NY 10012, U.S.A.—31775
Availability:
See website for availability
Ecto priority:
Recommended
Group members:
Rachelle Garniez—vocals, accordion
The Fortunate Few:
Rob Thomas—violin
Joe Ruddick—piano, keyboards, saxophones & flexatone
David Hofstra—bass, tuba & snaps
Phil Leone—drums & percussion
Guest artists:
Clay Ruede—cello
John Diaz—percussion samples
Produced by:
RG & Joe Ruddick
Comments:
Rachelle Garniez and the Fortunate Few make cool retrojazz with smart lyrics. This is laidback music, but the lyrics makes sure it doesn't lack bite.
"Spike Heel" retreads the "Pink Panther Theme" nicely and "Grasshopper" gives the old tale of the ant and the grasshopper a new spin. All in all a very nice album. (stjarnell@yahoo.com)
Crazy Blood
Release info:
2001—real cool records, P.O. Box 606 Prince Street Station, New York, NY 10012, USA—31776
Availability:
See website for availability
Ecto priority:
More than most artists I have written about for the Guide over the years, the rating on this particular dimension depends on how one defines one's terms. This album is certainly not "ectophilic" in the traditional sense, but viewed on its own terms, it is immensely enjoyable listening. I give it a high priority score. (mapravat@prairienet.org)
Group members:
Rachelle Garniez—vocals, accordion, banjo, bells & whistles
The Fortunate Few:
Joe Ruddick—piano, organ, wurlitzer, baritone sax
Stew Cutler—guitars, harmonica, lap steel
Catherine Popper—acoustic bass on 5 tracks
Dassi Rosenkrantz-Cabo—electric bass
Barbara Merjan—drums & percussion
Pam Fleming—trumpet & flugelhorn solos
Guido Gonzalez—trumpet
Dan Levine—trombone
Stephan Smith—fiddle
Cid Scantl—ebury, Paul Clements, Yuko Ichioka—background chorus
Sylvester Schneider—yodels
Ronnie Johnson—kalimba
Walker Stevenson—bells & stuff
Halloween Boy Toy—vox & guitar on 1 track
Produced by:
Rachelle Garniez
Comments:
Since I have never heard Garniez's first album, I have no idea how that one and this one compare and contrast. Perhaps the former had more jazz and cabaret style songs in it, leading to the Ectophiles' Guide's first conclusions about how to place this artist on the genre map. But the current album displays a wide variey of genres, all of them well done.
There is a lot of offbeat storytelling in Garniez's songs; while I have not heard anything by Jane Siberry in several years, an analogy between Garniez and the reigning "queen of quirk" is hard to avoid. On the aforementioned genre map, she runs the gamut on specific tracks,from retro jazz and cabaret, to blues-influenced, to Latin, to zydeco (the latter should perhaps have been figured from her Cajun-sounding name), to various others. I was reminded at various times, of various other artists, including Victoria Williams, Maria Muldaur, and the hipster sensibility in the early albums of Rickie Lee Jones; as well as Ten Wheel Drive, Genya Ravan's jazz-rock band of the early '70s which, like Garniez, used a lot of brass.
In short, this quirky, delightful album is an ideal change of pace for just about anyone. If you're going to throw caution to the winds, this is the one to do it with. (mapravat@prairienet.org)
Luckyday
Release info:
2004—Old Cow Music—OCM1002
Availability:
See website for availability
Ecto priority:
Recommended
Group members:
Rachelle Garniez—vocals, accordion, claviola, xylophone, acoustic guitar, piano
Guest artists:
Matt Munisteri—guitar, electric guitar, lap steel, banjo
Joe Ruddick—piano, wurlitzer, alto sax, baritone sax
Pamela Fleming—trumpet
Jacob Garniez—French horn, orchestra bells
Dave Hofstra—bass, tuba
Barbara Merjan—drums, percussion, castanets
Wade Schuman—harmonica
Alison Young—ukele, harmony vocals
Produced by:
Rachelle Garniez
Comments:
A unique mix of cabaret and American, folksy and whipsmart and bombastic and heart-wrenching by turns (and sometimes all at once). This album is all over the place and yet guided by Rachelle Garniez's rich voice and energy. She and her band draw influences from everywhere and all styles of music, leaving the listener feeling she's on shifting ground—except the vocals and energy unifies it, and an odd inclusive kind of sensible intelligence infuses it. Bouncy, pushy, over-the-top—what you'll probably remember most fondly about this album is its playful energy. (sophiagurley@hotmail.com)
Thanks to Sophia Gurley, stjarnell@yahoo.com, and Mitch Pravatiner for work on this entry.
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