Michael O'Neill with Kenny Washington

Recently described by JazzTimes as one of “the finest male jazz singers in the world,” Kenny Washington has earned a devoted following among peers like trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, pianist Geoffrey Keezer and vibraphonist Joe Locke. Avoiding publicity and participating in highly selective recordings, he’s long been considered the Bay Area’s best kept jazz secret. No one has done more to showcase his extraordinary talent than saxophonist/arranger Michael O’Neill, who has created a series of projects over the past decade featuring startlingly inventive arrangements specifically designed for Washington’s nonpareil talent. Their latest collaboration New Beginnings was released in September, 2014 on O’Neill’s Jazzmo Records, and it captures Washington’s lithe and supple tenor caressing beloved American Songbook standards reimagined to sound as if they were written with him in mind.

“The arrangements are unique settings, and Kenny’s the jewel,” says O’Neill, who has forged deep ties to many of the finest vocalists in the Bay Area.

Performing together regularly at jazz clubs, theaters and major festivals, O’Neill and Washington have become dear friends and creative comrades. A prolific composer and arranger with a reputation for bringing out the best in jazz singers, O’Neill made a point of featuring Washington on his first album, 2004’s The Long and The Short Of It, which introduced his concept incorporating Washington’s soul-drenched voice as part of sextet horn arrangements. The dazzling approach came to full fruition on O’Neill and Washington’s critically acclaimed 2007 album Still Dancin’.

As the title suggests, New Beginnings marks a fresh departure for the musical partnership (as well as celebrating the birth of Washington’s son Miles). While the program includes some of the American Songbook’s best known pieces, O’Neill’s arrangements transform the familiar fare into state-of-the-art vehicles for improvisation. He turns Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s “All the Things You Are” into a contrapuntal tour de force, while “Stella By Starlight” reaches warp five as an uncharacteristically brisk mambo workout. O’Neill is particularly effective unleashing Washington’s astounding scatting, which takes “A Night In Tunisia” into a whole new realm.