Eden Atwood, Girl Talk

In modern times, the word "ballad" has come to mean a "slow, sentimental popular song, esp a love song," or so claims Webster. That shallow definition ignores the fact that the ballad is a centuries-long tradition of human expression, one that spans Irish, Celtic, French and Mexican folk music, verse penned by Wordsworth, Keats and Shelly and 20th century standards from Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Sammy Cahn, Harry Warren and a host of others. Since ancient times, ballads have dwelt on love, good, bad and indifferent.

In modern times, the word "ballad" has come to mean a "slow, sentimental popular song, esp a love song," or so claims Webster. That shallow definition ignores the fact that the ballad is a centuries-long tradition of human expression, one that spans Irish, Celtic, French and Mexican folk music, verse penned by Wordsworth, Keats and Shelly and 20th century standards from Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Sammy Cahn, Harry Warren and a host of others. Since ancient times, ballads have dwelt on love, good, bad and indifferent.

No matter what time or place it hails from, the label "ballad" suggests form and function; rhythms, rhymes, stanzas and verse. Most importantly it is the expression of the human condition.

At best, the ballad's form becomes invisible and we are left with its dramatic message. Even as the form evolved and diversified--through the improvised lyrics of wandering troubadours, the emotionally-distant but tightly structured Parnassian school of French poets, the loosely-metered a-b-a-b rhymes of 21st century pop-- the ballad has always focused on narrative.

As any balladeer of the 19th century might tell you, the ballad is part story, part storyteller. Whether 50 or 500 years old, ballads share common themes. Those who interpret ballads, be they balladeers or torch singers, perform from a place of empathy, conviction and experience. They carry their own meaning to its story.

This Is Always brings together two of the jazz world's best storytellers: Eden Atwood, the bright standout among the current generation of vocalists, and Tom Harrell, the veteran accepted as the best lyrical trumpeter on the planet. That both these artists excel at what they do is apparent in the way they create distinctly different statements even as they perform the same music.

Eden's story, told frankly in the notes to her previous GrooveNote release Wave=85The Bossa Nova Sessions, includes her upbringing in harsh, spacious Montana (her grandfather is A.B. Guthrie, author of the classic novel The Big Sky), a distant but musical father, a struggle to survive as a singer and actress, stints in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, encouragement from the likes of Marian McPartland and Carl Jefferson of Concord Records and artistic if not commercial success at a relatively tender age.

That success did not come without difficulty. But now, based again in Montana, Eden says she's turned a corner in her life. "I feel I've grown up a bit," she explains. "I feel as if I've matured. I used to gravitate towards "Lush Life", "Good Morning Heartache," ballads that represented the more down side of life. But that's not where I am right now, I'm not as demonized as I have been in the past. Suddenly, there's a certain satisfaction in my life."