Why Limit Yourself?

In a recent interview, NPR’s Frank Stasio asked Grammy award winning musician, performer, producer and composer Branford Marsalis if he ever had any trepidation covering such great jazz classics as John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme.”

His reply was “absolutely not.”

While he has many compositions to his credit, several of Marsalis’ best-known recordings and performances are of someone else’s material.

Marsalis continued, “That’s what they’re there for. I discovered…that there was some idea in the music industry that you avoid comparison to great musicians by avoiding their material completely, thus insuring your own quest for individuality.”

“But, comparisons are inevitable. So, I just go for the best. I don’t believe in skirting them. If we fall short, we fall short. You just give it your best. I’d rather be out there going for the best than sitting on the sidelines.”

This part of the interview made me think of Clay, and his recent message about the upcoming CD featuring several "cover" songs. I'll admit I wasn’t overly thrilled about this bit of news. At first. However, interpreting existing compositions is a time-honored tradition in the music industry.

While it’s true that many artists choose to release cover songs later in their career (Sheryl Crow, Madonna, Martina McBride, Rod Stewart,) such diverse artists as Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville were known as interpretive artists early in their career.

Linda once said in an interview that her success was based on singing the best songs written by the best songwriters. Many great songwriters depend on the vocal talents of expressive singers to showcase their work. Here is an excerpt from another interview with Linda.

Q: I wondered if it was a conscious choice to focus on being a singer and an interpreter rather than a storyteller of your own stories.

A: It wasn't a choice; it just is what I am. I'm a singer not a composer, you know I think they're two very different gifts and I think that it's unusual that the 70s was such a singer/songwriter market, in the '50s nobody ever would have commented on that, I mean nobody every commented that Ella Fitzgerald wasn't a writer, for instance.

Q: Nobody comments that Barbra Streisand's not a writer either. It's just probably the community of musicians that you came from.

A: Right. I was immersed in that community, but that was an unusual bubble I think.

Q: But you drew off their work, anyway.

A: Yeah, it was an unusual thing. And a lot of singers came to writing, like Bonnie's [Raitt] writing stuff now, but she never wrote before, but she's come to writing stuff now, and that's really fabulous. Emmy's writing — Emmy always wrote well, but she wrote infrequently. But man, she wrote some great stuff for this new record.

Q: When you're a beautiful singer and you have access to any work you want —

A: Yeah, why limit yourself?

Why limit yourself indeed. Clay has his entire life to sing – new songs, love songs, adult pop, ballads and previously recorded material as well. The songs on Clay’s CD, will showcase his vocal abilities; of that I have no doubt. The songs, whichever cover songs they may be, will be chosen with care.

He'll have the cake, and I wish him the icing as well. Which is that the songs are rewarding for him to sing, fun to perform and maybe even radio friendly too!

An effective vocalist can give deeper meaning to the lyrics of a song. He or she can bring a warm intimacy to the performance, making it personal to the listener. A singer’s interpretation of a song is a gift to the listener, and Clay never fails to deliver on that gift.

This CD, only his third, is just another step in the journey. A pop music CD is not a manifesto, a cure for cancer or world poverty. It’s just a collection of songs, an opportunity for a singer to sing and the listener to be sung to.

Whatever Clay sings, one thing is for sure - you’ll know you’ve been sung to.

It may be a throwback to the golden age of pop music to focus on vocal artistry. Perhaps Clay will use this opportunity to make the skill of vocal artistry fresh and interesting again. Considering he'll be touring in support of the CD, I suspect we will get some favorites and some surprises – whether in song choice, presentation, interpretation or production. Maybe he’ll take a sweeping ballad and present it in a minimalist way, or a happy love song and make it a song of obsession. Who knows?

Imagine the possibilities.

And never limit yourself.