As I've argued before, while musical longevity has its exceptions, it's rare. And I don't mean acts trotting out their catalog of evergreens on some nostalgia cruise for aging boomers, I mean true artists still capable of producing quality new material, e.g. Cohen, Cave, Dylan, and Bowie. To this list of grayhead warriors add Julie Tippetts, 60s Brit "Northern Soul" singer ("with distant blues and jazz roots"), fashion vanguardist, and poet. (I've argued her virtues before when when her name was still Driscoll.)
Tippetts' recent collaborations with Martin Archer tend toward the ambient with shades of RenFair blown through with a jazzy phrasing and "experimental music." But damn, the 66 year old chanteuse can still hit the angelic high notes, nearly breaking escape velocity into whistle tones. Below are highlights from her last two albums with Archer. They may not be everyone's thing but give her props doing the hard work. She could've chosen the path of playing Vegas-y retreads of weather-beaten standards (like, say, Nina Hagen) and safely padded her pension fund, but she didn't. This old bird is still on the vanguard: props to her.
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