THESE PRECIOUS DAYS is the latest album by New York-based jazz vocalist and radio host MARY FOSTER CONKLIN. The project features mostly women writers in a savory mix of lesser-known jazz and pop tunes, all beautifully rendered by Conklin’s distinctive contralto voice and affective delivery.

THESE PRECIOUS DAYS is her fifth album and follows Crazy Eyes (1998), You’d Be Paradise (2001), Blues for Breakfast (2006), and Photographs (2016). Cadence Magazine said, “As someone who values freshness over music that appears regularly in everyone’s repertoire, Conklin brings to life seldom heard or forgotten songs with meaningful lyrics…Conklin’s versatility, not to mention her eclectic choices, proves she’s her own person, her possible influences being but a component of her totality.”

Conklin has been playing music that celebrates women composers and lyricists on her radio show, called “A Broad Spectrum – the Ladies of Jazz,” since 2016. The program streams online every Sunday on WFDU.FM’s HD2 channel at http://www.wfdu.fm, which is broadcast from Farleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. She has long been interested in championing women artists, so when the opportunity arose to host her own radio show after the release of Photographs, she jumped at the chance.

The album features top New York musicians, including pianist JOHN DI MARTINO, who wrote all the arrangements, violinist SARA CASWELL, bassist ED HOWARD, drummer VINCE CHERICO, guitarist GUILHERME MONTEIRO, and percussionist SAMUEL TORRES. Like her radio program, THESE PRECIOUS DAYS focuses mostly on women composers and lyricists, but also includes several choice songs by writers whose lyrics reflect the disruption and loss of the past few years.

The seed for THESE PRECIOUS DAYS was planted on a gig she did at Pangea, an intimate East Village club in March 2020. The show featured Conklin on vocals, Di Martino on piano, and, along with her rhythm section, Caswell on violin. The music was centered around neo-cabaret "art songs" written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, whose legendary rock and roll hits overshadowed a unique catalogue of material first recorded by Peggy Lee on the 1975 cult classic Mirrors.

Unfortunately, that show was their last live performance before the Covid lockdown, but it did give Conklin the time to collect new material while in isolation. In January 2021 she was invited to submit a video performance of “Some Cats Know” as part of the Peggy Lee centennial for the Mabel Mercer Foundation with Di Martino and Caswell, and later that year the trio presented a full set at the Soapbox Gallery in Brooklyn. When Conklin, Di Martino and Caswell went into the studio the following January, they added additional instrumentation for some extra seasoning, and so were joined by her regular rhythm section of Ed Howard and Vince Cherico.

The album opens with “Summertime,” but not the more famous Gershwin song of the same name. This tune was written by Leonard Cohen and Sharon Robinson, a frequent writing collaborator with Cohen. The song’s restless lyrics, like “And I want to drive forever / Wanna roll my windows down / Get the breeze back on my body / Get my feet back on the ground” particularly resonated with Conklin after being sequestered in her Manhattan apartment for many months due to the shutdown.

“Some Cats Know” is a smart, sexy song by Leiber and Stoller from Mirrors which Conklin first performed at Pangea. The Brill Building songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil wrote “Just a Little Lovin,” which appealed to Conklin for its message about the importance of the simple things in life. “Come in From the Rain” is by Melissa Manchester and Carole Bayer Sager, two of the most successful female writers on the pop scene.

Conklin has a special affinity for Beat poet Fran Landesman, having recorded several of her songs on her previous album. “Scars” was composed by Simon Wallace, and Conklin prefaces the song with a Landesman poem The Past Is A Foreign Country. “Just for Now,” was written by Dory Previn and her then-husband, André Previn, set to a samba tempo. “A Little White Ship” is another Leiber/Stoller song from Mirrors which was inspired by Tennessee Williams’ most dreamlike play, Camino Real.

The songs of loss include “Heart's Desire” by Alan Broadbent and the late Dave Frishberg, whom Conklin knew personally. “Rainbow” is an obscure number by Melba Liston and Abbey Lincoln, which Conklin was drawn to by its simple promise of hope. Conklin closes the album with Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “Until It's Time for You to Go” and “September Song” by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson, in memory of her father who died in 2018.

 THESE PRECIOUS DAYS will be released on February 24, 2023 on Mock Turtle Music and will be available everywhere.

Mary Foster Conklin website