Plenty of singers can tell a story. She makes you feel like she means every word of it, whether she’s whispering it or shouting it. Few sound this much like nobody else.
MariPosa Records
Marie-Paule Franke – vocals; Amir Mankovski – saxophone; Dongfeng Liu – acoustic piano; Marcos Varela – double bass; Mathias Künzli – drums & percussion
Marie-Paule Franke talks her way into a song, and it’s that conversational pull that separates her from the crowded field of jazz vocalists. Born in Germany, raised in Belgium, she’s paired here with a sharp New York quartet for Through the Cracks the Light Is Born, and right away, on “Twilight Whispers,” her tribute to Joni Mitchell, you hear what makes her different: a voice that goes soft and blurry at the edges, sometimes phrasing like a horn player who’d rather imply a note than land on it. Her accent adds a touch of mystery to the delivery, and later, when she slips into French, it takes you somewhere else for a while.
She trusts her band enough to get lost in it. On “‘Tis Yours,” her voice is low in the mix. It sits level with Amir Mankovski’s smoky tenor and Dongfeng Liu’s piano, and when her wordless vocals trade phrases with the sax, they begin a breathless pas de deux, twisting around one another in perfect, unscripted harmony.
Franke can shift character entirely from song to song. Her vocal delivery on “Beneath Broken Dreams” is almost child-like, innocent, with a nod toward Blossom Dearie. When intense percussion opens “Freedom,” it’s like a warning, and Franke answers it by singing softly to herself at first, before wordless vocals curdle into something stranger, hissing, scatting.
Franke wears her heart on her sleeve, and nowhere more so than on “Dagger Heart.” It sounds like she’s talking to someone who may not even be listening; she’s distraught, her phrasing’s off, words are difficult. The band is with her, but reticent, waiting to see where her emotions will lead. “Sword of Damocles” is a cry for truth and resistance, a lament. Franke and Liu push the song towards something urgent. She sings ‘the world’s on fire,’ and for a moment, you believe her.
By “Echo Nomade,” sung in French, the mood lifts. Piano and bass turn buoyant, and Franke slips between singing, whispering, and speaking like she can’t decide which one holds the most truth, though her excitement makes the choice feel beside the point.
Through the Cracks the Light Is Born covers a lot of ground for a singer to hold together — tender one moment, pushing herself to the edge next — and still, she just sounds like herself. Plenty of singers can tell a story. She makes you feel like she means every word of it, whether she’s whispering it or shouting it. Few sound this much like nobody else.
