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J A Z Z V O C A L

www.marcpompe.com

[email protected]

630.595.6090

Marc PompeMarc Pompe

aaaaaaMarc PompeMarc Pompe J A Z Z V O C A L

[email protected] a 630.595.6090

www.marcpompe . c om

Marc PompeMarc Pompe


Biography

Jazz Vocal

Marc Pompe began performing around Rush Street as a solo

piano/vocal in the mid fiftys and was influenced by the music of

Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk. Vocal influences

include Frank Sinatra, Joe Williams, Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen Mc Crae

and Jon Hendricks.

After 40 years of performing, 1997 saw the of Marc’s first CD release,

Nobody Else But Me, on Kopaesthetics Records. Cadence Jazz

Magazine said of the album, “Marc does it the traditional way,

full-blooded belting in front of a tasty piano trio.”

In 2004, Marc released his Lost in the Stars album on CIMP Records.

On this album, backed by a guitar trio, Marc breaths intimacy into

deeply personal lyrics. The liner notes of Lost in the Stars sum up

Marc’s performance, “Marc Pompe is a true Jazz singer who follows

the thread of his own instinct while reacting to his musical surroundings,

all the while insisting that notes sustained are never lost anywhere.”

Marc’s new album, You Must Believe in Swing, was released in

November of 2004 on Cadence Jazz Records. This recording features

Hammond B-3 wizard Joey Defrancesco with Henry Johnson (guitar)

and Byron Landham (drums). With the backing of this powerful B-3

Hammond trio, Marc was able to soar! Chicago Jazz Magazine said of

Marc and the album: “As for Pompe, he has two things that most

singers don’t: his own style and good phrasing. His treatment of each song is

unique without losing the tradition of singers that come before him.”

JazzReview.com says, “Pompe handles the American songbook with

magnetism and assurance.”




Noteable Festival and Venue Performances

aMarshall Vente JazzFest JAZZ SHOWCASE, CHICAGO 1999 & 2001

Duke Ellington Centennial Concert CHICAGO HILTON AND TOWERS

WITH GENE ESPOSITO’S JAZZ IDIUM ORCHESTRA 1999

Billy Strayhorn Tribute GATEWAY THEATRE

WITH GENE ESPOSITO’S JAZZ IDIUM ORCHESTRA CHICAGO 2001

Jilly’s NEW YORK CITY

42nd Street Sheraton NEW YORK CITY

Fairbanks on Fairbanks (Holiday Inn) CHICAGO

Jazz Showcase CHICAGO

The Green Mill CHICAGO

Green Dolphine Street CHICAGO

Chamber’s NILES, IL

Harrah’s Showboat Casino GARY, IN

The Drake (Coq D’or) CHICAGO

The Gaslight TORONTO

Billy’s WASHINGTON, DC

Eddie’s Backstreet USVI

Tramway USVI

Cardillo’s Club Cafe PITTSBURGH

The Mother’s Lounge PITTSBURGH

Encore PITTSBURGH

Martinis’ Jefferson Hills, PA




OneFinalNote.com • You Must Believe In Swing / Lost In The Stars Reviewby David Dupont • April 18, 2005

Singer Marc Pompe comes to national attention with a tale to tell. Born in 1936,he's been working as a singer for half a century, based out of his native Chicago.But aside from a few cassette releases, he's never recorded, and hence not mademuch of a splash. Writer Alan Bargebuhr heard Pompe during a one-night standin Pennsylvania and brought him to the attention of Cadence-CIMP impresarioBob Rusch. Now neither Bargebuhr nor Rusch are known for being easilyimpressed, but they were of a like mind on Pompe. The result is not one, but tworeleases: the Cadence-issued You Must Believe in Swing, a 2001 recording splitbetween duets and tracks with Joey DeFrancesco's trio, and Lost in the Stars, a2004 session recorded in CIMP's Spirit Room.

Opening the Cadence release with the title tune, Pompe and friends practice whatthey preach. A medium up-swinger, Pompe wastes little time moving through hisown witty lyrics into some scatting over the changes of Buddy DeFranco's tune.The song could very well be subtitled "announcing Marc Pompe". He has a smokytenor: a touch nasal, a touch hoarse. He sounds his age, the way a well-aged winetastes its age. He has a sure sense of swing, operating very much as a member ofthe ensemble, rather than a singer with rhythm background, and he never soundslike he needs the rhythm section to show him how to swing. When he addressesa song's lyricism, as he demonstrates on "You Must Believe in Spring", he knowshow to turn a word, lengthen it or cut it short to dramatize its meaning. He's nota demonstrative musical actor. Rather his low-key, seemingly offhand approachbelies the way he inhabits these songs.

The program is well selected to show off the leader's skills. The songs come fromthe jazz standards book with some evergreens like "You Must Believe in Spring","Chelsea Bridge", and "Masquerade", each of which he makes his own. But he alsomakes his mark with the Marian McPartland-Johnny Mercer collaboration"Twilight World", a song he invests with a hard won emotionalism. He andRoberts treat The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" as a rollicking boogie, an interpretationthat proves unexpectedly fetching. It provides an interesting contrast to thestraight-ahead swing of the DeFrancesco Trio.

Drummer Byron Landham powers the ensemble. The band swings so hard, I shift-ed my attention to Landham to hear what he was doing and he was doing... noth

Press Reviews




OneFinalNote.com Continueding, or at least nothing spectacular. He relies on the basics and a solid beat. At onepoint under Henry Johnson's solo on "Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You", he pushesalong the guitar with a double roll: Brrrr-bhap! Brrrr-bhap! The organist and gui-tarist provide soulful solos that complement the vocals and never lapse into organtrio cliché. Roberts provides support on "Twilight" as well as the Beatles tune andguitarist Curt Warren duets with him on Strayhorn's "Chelsea Bridge".

Warren is a member of the trio that found its way with the singer to upstate NewYork to record Lost in the Stars. Given CIMP's uncompromising approach to record-ing and producing, a singer needs to be confident to venture into the Spirit Room.Vocalists are recorded just like instrumentalists. The two microphones are posi-tioned to get the best overall impression of the entire ensemble, not a vocalistwith instrumental backup. Without a mike to call his own or the safety net ofpost-production doctoring, Pompe, like the other singers who have dared to takethe CIMP challenge, finds his voice exposed, naked in both its glory and fragility.

The recording achieves a bracing intimacy. I sense this is how Pompe hears themusic in his head and he delivers it unadulterated, forswearing any effort to play itsafe. The repertoire covers an even greater range including classics from the Basie("Corner Pocket") and Ellington ("I Didn't Know About You" and "Do Nothing Till YouHear from Me") books and standards ranging from classic swingers like "Lucky to BeMe" to Kurt Weill's aria "Lost in the Stars". And he tackles a fistful of jazz tunes,including Monk's "Well You Needn't" and Joe Zawinul's metric puzzle"Rumplestiltskin". He spins all these into musical gold, both in reading the lyrics andproviding some capable scat. On "Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me" he delivers asweeping, cogent statement—transcription worthy, even—that sounds like it's ref-erencing trombonist Lawrence Brown's set piece solo as much as the tune itself.

The "Lost" rhythm section of Warren, bassist Nick Tountas, and drummer RustyJones offers a looser, more open sense of swing than the tight variety provided bythe DeFrancesco group. Warren offers up laconic guitar statements that fit withthe relaxed, four-guys-in-a-living-room mood of the session. Pompe sounds not somuch as a performer as someone who's just doing what he loves.

Regardless of his age, Marc Pompe is hip in the deepest, most profound way. He does-n't need the trappings of style and youthfulness. Pompe stays true to the music he loves,performing it with the deepest love for its tradition and possibilities. That's timeless.

Press Reviews




JazzReview.com • You Must Believe In Swing Album Review

Vocalist Marc Pompe is primarily known within his hometown Chicago and has-n’t recorded a whole lot. Regardless, if you dig Jon Hendricks or Mark Murphy,then Pompe’s hip and thoroughly swinging persona should bring a sparkle to yourmind’s eye. With backing by Hammond B-3 ace, Joey DeFrancesco and his revvedup trio, Pompe handles a portion of the American songbook with magnetism andassurance. As DeFrancesco, along with guitarist Henry Johnson and guest soloistsdish out some irrefutably groovin’ solos during the preponderance of these nicelyenacted studio dates.

Chicago Jazz Magazine • You Must Believe in Swing Album ReviewJanuary 2005 • by Michael Barton

You Must Believe in Swing is a CD that from start to finish shows the polish ofyears of experience and soul searching. Joining Pompe on this project are JoeyDeFrancesco (B3), Henry Johnson (guitar), Byron Landham (drums), Curt Warren(guitar), and Judy Roberts (piano).

I have long been a fan of Henry Johnson and the Organ Express. If you haven’tchecked them out, it’s worth the night out anytime. Teamed with DeFrancescoand Landham, Johnson really brings it home. His soloing and comping throughoutthe CD show high levels of virtuosity and taste. His playing perfectly complimentsDeFrancesco, who has been shaping the way we hear the organ for years. On ashort list of B3 players that are staples in jazz vocabulary, he’s right there. To topit off, he’s a better bass player than most guys working in Chicago, myself includ-ed, that don’t have to comp or solo on top of themselves. Judy Roberts: her play-ing on “Eleanor Rigby” and “Twilight World” complete this project, the latter beingmy favorite cut on the CD.

As for Pompe, he has two things that most singers don’t: his own style and goodphrasing. His treatment of each song is unique without losing the tradition ofsingers that come before him. I also must commend Pompe for his choice of reper-toire. There is a fresh blend of songs that work very well together. As for therecording, I say that a bad mix is like a fat man that stands up in the front row ofa club and talks politics at the top of his lungs. For this project, the fat man hasdefinitely let the building. This CD is right on the money with the blend eachmusician brings, ant the blend the engineer put onto the disc. All this togethermakes You Must Believe in Swing easy to take for even the most Ritalin-with

Press Reviews




Chicago Jazz Magazine Continueddrawn, Nintendo-junkie, jazz fanatic-and you know who you are. It is simply ashame that more people don’t know of Marc Pompe. So the word is: buy this CD.

LOST IN THE STARS Album Review, Cadence Magazine by Alan Bargebuhr • January 2005

In the interest of full disclosure, I'll come clean without any coaxing. Yes, I am per-sonally acquainted with Marc Pompe and, in fact, had something to do with intro-ducing him to the Cadence conglomerate. I wrote the liner notes for his CadenceJazz CD (not yet reviewed) and find myself mentioned in passing in the notes forthis one. Does that mean my objectivity is compromised? Well, what makes youthink I'm objective, anyway? Reviewing has mostly to do with expressing opin-ions, particularly in matters as abstract as music. So, now you know.

I don't think I've ever been present at a Pompe gig, when he didn't slice throughthe smoke and barroom clatter with a pointed reading of Randy Weston's "Hi-Fly"(words by Jon Hendricks). And here it is, without any indecorous distractions.And, what a reading it is, with its wail of bereavement in his urgent openingphrase - 'Old ways seem to have passed us by' - and the exquisite bitterness in theway he all but sneers the phrase 'acting silly while they fly..... high.' Add somecookery by the trio between his opening chorus and the culminating close andyou have a 21st century dialectic, with bracingly strophic guitar from Curt Warren,angular accents from Rusty Jones' drum kit, nicely placed notes from Nick Tountas'bass, and an existentially suspended ending.

All through the session, Marc sings as well as I've ever heard him, with the strainof quizzical melancholia and amiable bop blowziness so seemingly integral to hisJazz personna. He seems to have developed a way of reaching into the anatomicalinnards of a song, using his voice as ballast to the lyric, reshaping phrases as hisgrasp on spontaneity flexes. This is never more evident than in his speech inflect-ed "Didn't Know," which he opens with the brief verse, after which the naturalnessof his exposition imbues the words with just enough pain to confirm his honesty,but not enough to tip the tale over into self-pity. Curt Warren plays some lovelynotes along the way.

"Thrill" allows ample room for fervent soloing from Warren and Tountas andinvolves Jones in some sprightly concluding trades. 'Nothing' opens on thestrength of the Tountas bass and allows the bassist additional solo space, between

Press Reviews




Cadence Magazine Continuedvocal choruses. The entire trio plays resourcefully throughout the session, whetherin the lee calm of Marc's vocals or out in front, skimming the rhythmic breakers.These are men who have worked together over the years and know whereof theyfit in the collective scheme of things.

Marc scats on Monk's "Needn't," biting off Mike Ferro's words with relish. Carmensang the same words on her Monk album (5/02, pg. 30), which lists the song underthe title, "It's Over Now." Ferro also contributed the words to Wayne Shorter's"Footprints," turning it into something Darwinian, if not surreal. Marc added theantic lyrics to Joe Zawinul's "Rumplestiltskin," and additional Pompe lyrics arepresent on the Latin flavored "Dança," which features a melody by Carol ColemanNovak. "Pocket" is by Freddie Green, was in the Basie book for many years. WithDon Wolf 's lyrics added, as they are here, it's often listed as "Until I Met You."

The Pompe ballad style emerges on his aching readings of Loonis McGlohon's"Wine" and Kurt Weill's (words by Maxwell Anderson) haunting 'Lost.' Marc's read-ing of the latter is guaranteed to make the candles flicker as the shutters creak inthe wind outside. Something indefinable is happening as he sings, with somelovely Curt Warren chording behind him. He must be imagining himself alone inthe cosmos, far from home, trailing the dust of his very own existence. Only oncethrough. I was truly moved.

Marc Pompe is a true Jazz singer, in thought and deed, in the way he follows thethread of his own instinct while reacting to his musical surroundings, all thewhile insisting that notes sustained are never lost anywhere...... not even in thestars.

Press Reviews




Discography

You Must Believe in Swingfeaturing The Joey DeFrancesco Triowith: Henry Johnson (guitar)

and Byron Landham (drums)

also: Curt Warren (guitar)

and Judy Roberts (paino)

2005 Cadence Jazz Records

Nobody Else But Mewith: Larry Novak (piano)

Nick Tountas (bass)

and Rusty Jones (dums)

1997 Kopaesthetics Records

Lost in the StarsMarc pompe Trio

with: Rusty Jones (drums)

Nick Tountas (bass)

and Curt Warren (guitar)

2004 C.I.M.P. Records

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