New Record!
Jazz Pianist and Singer-Songwriter Amy K Bormet’s Tell Me What It’s Like Album Release Party at Blues Alley in Washington, DC
Strange Woman Records invites you to celebrate Amy K Bormet’s new release Tell Me What It’s Like with her trio. Fresh off a two-week residency in St Croix, the trio will perform freewheeling, storytelling songs from her new album, and a few favorites from previous releases. Amy is the creator and director of Washington Women in Jazz, and will be joined by Karine Chapdelaine on bass, and Angel Bethea on drums.
Liner Notes:
There are many ways to get to know a person, but none like hearing someone sing and play their own music. Whether people aim to present themselves truthfully or not, the voice never lies. And Amy K Bormet’s latest project “Tell Me What It’s Like” lets us know what’s been on her mind these last two years.
“Tell Me What It’s Like” is a beautifully intimate and audacious solo project for voice and piano. The album gracefully beckons us with its opening composition “Homecoming”. Reassuring like familiar furniture Bormet serenades us into the living room of this sonic adventure. And then right away she brings us into what mistakes and missteps have been made in the song “My Dear Friend”. While upbeat on the surface Amy reveals the sadness and longing of lost friendship. Moaning the melody away, it’s clear there’s no coming back to where we started.
Memories linger yet again as Bormet unveils another level of vulnerability in the song “Otella”. Through breathy calls and quiet yells reminiscent of singers like Bjork, “Otella” delves into the truth and isolation of mental illness and more specifically suicide. “Muddy and opaque I wade in the water of old cedar lake” Amy sings these lyrics with a desperate insistence. Her playing also materializes differently than on other tracks. It is demanding yet fragile. Before the last refrain we hear the deep and low pounding of her piano playing that calls to greats such as Nina Simone before Amy gives the last iteration of the melody. But it is tired, more tired than it even started. This song echoes in the silence after it has left.
However, we are brought back to solid ground with “Hymn of Revelation”. Here Bormet reveals her R&B and Jazz inflections. There is a spunk and uplift that emerges as this song opens up in the solo section. Despite the refrain “there’ll be no peace”, we hear light on the horizon bringing a kind of hope. Change is here and maybe that is better than peace.
It’s a good time to slow down with “Tell Me What It’s Like”, the title track of the album, which feels like it resounds just south of Appalachian mountains and female country music trios before spilling into ”Song About Us”. Amy returns to our favorite piano bar as she then leads us into the world with the promise of love.
Bormet bookends this album with themes of liberation and isolation with the final composition “Jealous of The Birds”. With swirling parts Amy reminds the listener of possibility and expansion through a round of voices and soloing piano. It is a dance of birds and the potential dance of bodies longing to escape the trappings of home and the struggles therein. There is a palpable longing in the lyrics “migrating to different routes close together, free”. Carefully Bormet wraps the listener up in this one last musical blanket before releasing us into the messy, loving and painful truth of living.
– Pyeng Threadgill
Lost in the Mail
Personalized Vinyl Records for Holidays!
Happy almost November! Holidays are right around the corner, and I’ve got a treat for you- personalized vinyl records! Each record contains a one-of-a-kind live take, made specifically and individually for each person that orders. All of these records are in effect masters with no other copies made. The records aren’t mass produced, dubbed, copied, etc. and they each contain a different live performance that exists nowhere else in the world. Think of these records like audio polaroids…each individual from one another and 100% one-of-a-kind. Pick one of three songs, and leave me a note if the record is cut for you, or a gift to someone (or maybe you want me to tell an amazing joke at the end…) A great way to send a little love to someone you care about.
Select your song and order your personal cut here!
Let’s Make a Change
Some Other Spring
Spending time with myself at the piano and with vocals. A classic tune made famous by Billie Holiday. Watch the video and buy now at strangewomanrecords.com
Luce Unplugged
Had a great show on Sunday at the beautiful Luce Center in the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum! Thanks to all who came out and supported my eclectic set of original music, Hindustani folk songs, free jazz, and a couple standards.
Diev and I will be performing at the Bethesda Row Arts Festival later this month, so come catch us for free there!