FV Reviewed in the New York Times!!
Fay received her first ever concert review for her performance on the Sound It Out Series at the Greenwich House in New York City with powerhouse pianist Myra Melford and the crushing cellist Marika Hughes from the New York Times! Not only was the concert reviewed, it was selected as one of the TOP THREE of the month in jazz. Exciting indeed! The Times has been generous over the years with listings and a number of record reviews (even a recent mention about Wet Robots).
“Ms. Victor is a singer with her own brand: She’s theatrical and extreme without being campy. Expectations about a jazz vocalist’s demeanor — that it can’t be too aggressive, or that if it’s biting it can’t also be warm — don’t mean a thing to her. And forget about continuity. Sometimes melody leads to rhythm, or an explosion or a scream. Her affects are all scrambled. In that way, her playing sounds firmly planted in the age of digital media.
When she does sing even or discernible pitches, her precision is remarkable. But even more striking is how conversational and direct it feels. She’s essentially invented her own hybrid of song and spoken word, a scat style for today’s avant-garde.”
–Giovanni Russonello, The New York Times
Read the entire article here..
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/28/arts/music/best-live-jazz-marquis-hill-blacktet-fay-victor-starebaby.html
FV Feature in Norwegian Daily KLASS KLAMPEN (CLASS STRUGGLE)!!
“Here she delivers vocabulary singing, acrobatic and agile, but with staggering and poignant, spoken word-art rhythm in a kind of modern, avant-garde “scat” song that Victor may be said to be a unique exponent of”…”Those seeking one of the softest entrance to Victor’s world can start with “I Sing”, where she lists many of the reasons she sings. And note that none of them is to live up to genre expectations. Thank you and praise for that.”
–Chris Monsen, Class Struggle
“Artistically complete”
–Ben Ratliff, The New York Times
“…Victor’s soulful, emotive delivery combines with avant-tinged invention, placing her alongside great vocal innovators like Betty Carter, Jeanne Lee, Sheila Jordan…”
– John Kelman, All About Jazz
PRESS for We’ve Had Enough by SoundNoiseFUNK (Esp-Disk)
www.espdisk.com
fay victor – voice, lyrics, conception, sam newsome – soprano saxophone, joe morris – guitar reggie nicholson – drums
“Despite being recorded prior to the coronavirus pandemic, vocalist Fay Victor’s We’ve Had Enough!, an album consisting primarily of live improvisations, speaks directly to our times.” – Joshua Myers, Downbeat
“Fay Victor is a vocalist and composer with a proud history of social commentary, and a fearless commitment to discovery.” – Nate Chinen, WBGO
“The second installment of Fay Victor’s SoundNoiseFunk We’ve had enough! is exactly that. It is Fay Victor with her artistic vocal capacity in the center of… yes, sound and noise and all that on a rather funky base.” – Daniel Böker, Free Jazz Blog
“The genius of this date is that so much in it is filled with joy in the face of outrage. Fay and her band are always light on their feet, playing with each other — really playing . Victor improvises lyrics as well as notes, often addressing politics, but even when she is singing “no air” in a song about climate destruction you are drawn in by the artful play of the band.” – Will Layman, PopMatters
“Fay Victor requires no introduction within New York’s improvisational music sector, her fluid, powerful voice a clarion call to the possibilities of musical emotion.” – John Pietaro, New York City Jazz Record
Press for Harlem Speaks from William Parker’s Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World
Fay Victor – voice / William Parker – bass, guembri, balafon, gralla / Hamid Drake – drums, frame drum
“The disc is blessed with vocalist Fay Victor and her typical blunt elegance, humor, and intelligence.” – George Grella, Brooklyn Rail
“She never seems to be a singer standing in front of musicians; she stands with them, her voice mingling with the sounds they produce and honoring their contributions as equal to her own.” – Phil Freeman, Burning Ambulance
“The best of the vocal albums and the very best album in the set is Harlem Speaks, which on its own would easily be one of the top jazz albums of the last several years.” – George Grella, The New York City Jazz Record
Press for Barn Songs by Fay Victor Chamber Trio
Fay Victor – voice, compositions / Marika Hughes – cello / Darius Jones – alto saxophone
“To say she pushes the envelope is a vast understatement. She certainly cannot be compared to anyone else.” – Jim Hynes, Making a Scene
“Jazz singers have always been asked to strike some balance between the proper and the personal, but Victor’s style is all hers: a mix of speech and song, words and abstraction, interior monologue and call-to-action.” – Giovanni Russonello, The New York Times
“The album, comprised of songs Victor wrote while living in Amsterdam more than 20 years ago and brought to life here by cellist Marika Hughes and alto saxophonist Darius Jones, works as a reassessment of the singer’s past. It’s one with an undeniably timeless feel, touching on the intricacies of self-discovery.” – Downbeat
PRESS for Wet Robots by SoundNoiseFUNK (Esp-Disk)
www.espdisk.com
fay victor – voice, lyrics, conception, sam newsome – soprano saxophone, joe morris – guitar reggie nicholson – drums
4 ½ STARS – Downbeat Magazine
“Wet Robots is a program of thoughtful particulars, but it’s Victor’s acrobatics that mesmerize. Unabashed when it comes to sound creation, one can hear the passion in every syllable she utters, whether manic or modest. With echoes of Lauren Newton and Meredith Monk, the singer builds a web of personalized pieces that boast exuberance, with each warble, shriek and roar crafting a ferocious identity. Informed by blues and politics, their cagey deployment is downright entrancing, especially when bolstered by this kind of collective clout.”
–Jim Macnie, Downbeat Magazine (+HotBox), October 2018
“Singer Fay Victor is the solution to so many “What is the role of the singer in jazz today?” puzzles. The role, Victor proves throughout Wet Robots, is anything at all, anything the imagination allows…on a third or fourth pass through this remarkable document—and what can only be called a narrowly focused part of Fay Victor’s art, as she has fronted many bands with many different instrumentations and approaches—I felt I needed to rethink what “jazz” singing really could or ought to be so many years after talents like Betty Carter, Nina Simone, and Cassandra Wilson had dared to begin redefining it. Victor is at another level of freedom and daring and creativity. Sure, this kind of music is at the arty margin, but Victor proves that this kind of abstract singing is also flesh and blood and heart and earth.
‘I sing to save my life / I sing to look human’, Fay Victor makes clear.”
–Will Layman, Popmatters (8/10)
“On Wet Robots, Fay Victor’s SoundNoiseFunk sound extraordinarily alive indeed.”
–Brad Cohan, JazzTimes Magazine
“Ms. Victor makes her voice into an expressive bomb, cycling through birdlike coos and tumbling laughter and urgent cries. Together with her quartet, SoundNoiseFUNK, she released an impressive, uncompromising album this summer, “Wet Robots.”
–Giovanni Russonello, The New York Times
“This record stands out from the usual free jazz gestures and credit belongs to Victor. It’s not just that this is her band, but her unique singing concept leads the way. She has a familiar toolbox of vocal sounds, but it’s the way she uses her notes that matter—she has exceptional intonation and it sounds like it comes effortlessly, so she improvises with pitches and melodically logical and coherent tonal phrases. On top of that, she manages the challenging high-wire act of improvising text while always keeping it interesting and fresh. It’s a measure of a first-rate intelligence— take that F. Scott Fitzgerald.”…As abstract as most of this is, the earth of the blues comes through almost every track, often with power…”
—George Grella, NYCJR, September 2018
“…it’s Victor’s acrobatics that mesmerize. Unabashed when it comes to sound creation, you can hear the passion in every syllable she utters, whether manic or modest. With echoes of Lauren Newton and Meredith Monk in the air, the singer builds a web of personalized pieces that boasts exuberance, with each warble, shriek and roar crafting a ferocious identity. Informed by blues and politics, their cagey deployment is downright entrancing, especially when bolstered by this kind of collective clout.”
—Jim MacNie, Lament for a Straight Line
“Fay Victor is one of the most thoughtful, deep, and groundbreaking vocalists. With her new group, the absolutely wild quartet SoundNoiseFUNK, Victor explores much of the simmering pain, confusion, and fear of living in 2018, while retaining a sense of hope and humor. SoundNoiseFUNK is a spry and fierce super-group, featuring Sam Newsome on sax, Joe Morris on guitar, and Reggie Nicholson on drums.”
— Lee Rice Epstein, Free Jazz Blog
Fay Victor’s SoundNoiseFUNK Wet Robots (ESP-Disk)
NICOLE MITCHELL’S MAROON CLOUD
Maroon Cloud is flutest/composer Nicole Mitchell’s intimate and astonishing collection of music created for (and recorded live at) John Zorn’s Stone Commissioning Series. The absence of a drummer or bass player, perhaps, adds an open feeling to this band, but it is this transparency in the music that makes a potentially “out there” session into something inviting….(Is this year the one in which Fay Victor simply becomes the A-list jazz singer across all styles? Wow, she’s everywhere and sounding incredible.) In the middle section, she also uses extended techniques to chirp and growl, to flutter and smack. (She’s everywhere doing, well, everything.)
-Will Layman, PopMatters.com
Marc RIBOT’s Songs of Resistance 1942-2018
Shadow Proof Protest Song of the Week – John Brown by Marc Ribot (feat. Fay Victor)
https://shadowproof.com/2018/09/26/protest-song-week-john-brown-fay-victor-marc-ribot/
Marc Ribot’s – Songs Of Resistance 1942-2018 – Ribot attempts to connect current resistance against President Donald Trump’s administration to musical traditions of protest. The album was released on September 14. It reworks songs popularized by the civil rights movement in the United States as well as songs of the anti-fascist resistance in Italy during World War II. The album also features vocal guests such as Tom Waits, Steve Earle & Meshelle Nendegeocello. Several original songs are featured as well. Fay Victor’s contributions are absolutely a highlight of the album. On “John Brown,” she displays her powerful and dynamic range as a jazz vocalist. “John Brown” is an original song written and composed by Ribot. It recognizes Brown as a revolutionary, who was an abolitionist that spurred the end of slavery through his acts.
Learn more about this great project – http://marcribot.com/