Cynthia Felton - Freedom Jazz Dance

"From the first ringing notes – "Oh Freedom" of Cynthia Felton's Freedom Jazz Dance session, I was lifted by the life force of her celebration of the common language of jazz, blues and gospel.

Here is Cynthia Felton bringing the impact of her multi-dimensional human voice. And dig the heart-pulse beat – also known as swinging – in all of her storytelling including such too seldom heard originals as Charles Mingus' "Duke Ellington's Sound of Love."

Although this is a singer with a four-octave range, she does not engage in surface pyrotechnics – technical wizardry. Dizzy Gillespie once told me: "It took me years to learn what notes not to play, "Cynthia Felton doesn't flashily pyramid notes. Each sound is part of her inner being.

Her passion led her to found The Ethnomusicology Library of American Heritage where she focuses on that deep heritage that has become a global music transcending barriers of national languages and backgrounds. The intent of the library is "to bring attention to artists and music history that might not be so known."

And Cynthia Felton, as you hear in this session, surely deserves to be much better known. I confess I did not know about her until this recording. Now Cynthia' music has become part of my life.

- Nat Hentoff

At The Jazz Band Ball: Sixty

Years On The Jazz Scene

(University of California Press)