Pretty Blues

About “Pretty Blues”

Singer Antoinette Montague from New York City combines jazz and blues on her debut album, Pretty Blues, and delivers strong interpretations of a dozen standards.

The phrase “Pretty Blues” is simply another way of describing Antoinette’s jazzy-blues. Her strength is combining the heartfelt passion of the blues with the sophistication of jazz.
Her style can be powerful one moment and soft-and-delicate the next. Her lusty and soulful voice reaches right into the heart of the listener.

“At times I have been called a jazz singer who can belt the blues, and other times they say I am a blues singer who can swing with a jazz band,” states Montague. “I don’t care. I am just happy to be a singer. Period. I’m just letting it flow however it goes. Of course I mix jazz and blues. It’s natural to take all of your inspirations and blend them together. You also might hear me throw in a little gospel, R&B, Motown soul or big-band stylings. We build on what came before. The classic example is Billie Holliday, who was influenced by Bessie Smith’s blues, but Billie took it into more of a jazz direction.”

“Where the blues are a basic part of life, an almost primeval experience, jazz is an elevated art form,” explains Antoinette. “Jazz follows a rich artistic path of high caliber.
Where blues is the solid foundation for so much other music, jazz goes its own way. Jazz is infinite in possibilities. That’s why I love the idea of combining the best of jazz and blues whenever possible.
They complement and balance each other.”

For Pretty Blues, Montague assembled a top band of some of the best jazz masters in the country with a wealth of credits — pianist Mulgrew Miller (Woody Shaw, Art Blakey, Betty Carter, Branford Marsalis,
Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves), tenor saxophonist and flutist Bill Easley (Duke Ellington Orchestra, Benny Carter, Ruth Brown, George Benson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Isaac Hayes, Dakota Staton), drummer Kenny Washington (Lee Konitz, Betty Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Joshua Redman, Phil Woods), and bassist Peter Washington (Art Blakey, Benny Green, Lionel Hampton, Marlena Shaw, Freddie Hubbard, Michal Urbaniak). Montague co-produced with musical director Kenny Washington while Miller contributed arrangements.

On the CD, Antoinette covers some classic material. She shows her blues roots on the opening medley, “I’d Rather Drink Muddy Water/Everyday I have The Blues.” Following that full-throated blues number, Montague comes right back with the delicately-sung sweet love song “Unless It’s You” (“We’re never completely free of people we have loved and this song reminds me of doubts I had when leaving relationships”). Antoinette also shows what she can do with standards – three by Irving Berlin (“How Deep Is The Ocean,” the top-speed “From This Moment On” and “Blue Skies”) and a pair by Sammy Cohn (“Dedicated To You” and “Teach Me Tonight”). The album title comes from her version of the Joe Williams tune “Pretty Blue.” Among other tunes, Antoinette sings “Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister)” written by Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie for the movie “The Color Purple.” “That song is for all my ‘sistahs’ out there. It acknowledges the lonesome, scuffling road, but encourages women to raise their self-esteem and believe in themselves.”

Montague also offers worthwhile advice with the song “Pure Imagination” from an unlikely source, the original “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” movie. “I don’t really remember the film, but I have heard several jazz artists perform it over the years and it always gave me chills. The words are an inspiration. If you want to do something, imagine it first and then make it happen. Try to be worthy and true to yourself. Keep honest energy around you. I use the lyrics to shed the self-doubt and catapult myself into action.”

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