One Step Ahead - Cécile McLorin Salvant

The Window - 2018

I’ve been listening to hours and hours of Cécile McLorin Salvant this week and I’ll get into the context of why in a bit, but recently it led me to a very fun realization. A few days ago while listening to her 2018 album The Window, I got that itchy feeling during the chorus of One Step Ahead like I had heard this line before - “I know I can’t afford to stop for one moment.” It racked my brain and I paused and relistened to that bit a few times to see if anything came up, but I was unsuccessful. The song itself was beautiful and the rest of the album was excellent so I moved on.

Then last night as I was driving home pretty late, had my liked songs shuffling and maybe you already know where this is going. Halfway through the drive Ms. Fat Booty by Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) came on, immediately opening on a sample of One Step Ahead. There were a few days between me last hearing Salvant sing it but I was still pretty sure these dots were connecting. Till I got home though all I could do was enjoy one of the stickiest, hip-swingingest beats ever produced.

In the driveway at home I did verify that the one samples the other but there’s a timing issue - Mos Def’s Black on Both Sides came out in 1999 and Cécile McLorin Salvant’s The Window in 2018. So a mystery for this morning and I went to bed.

Well here we are though and Cécile answered this question for me in a live performance she did of One Step Ahead a few years ago. She explains that it’s originally an Aretha Franklin song. I went back to check that out and it’s a perfectly nice motown ballad. I think the reason I hadn’t heard it before is that it was a single release and doesn’t appear on any of her studio albums.

That’s the whole story. If you’re interested in how Cécile McLorin Salvant popped up for me and why I’ve been mainlining her it’s because of her pianist Sullivan Fortner. No knock on Salvant, her voice is incredible and I especially like how she stretches and shrinks time while staying on the grid (like here in Until). But Sullivan Fortner is just a marvel.

Putting his incredible solo work aside - his prowess as an accompanist fascinates me. Somehow his playing sounds selfish and selfless at the same time. In this recording of Wild is Love at SF Jazz he is always playing quite a lot - throwing out complex ideas, spelling out full phrases, and generally being very dense harmonically. But it all sounds complimentary, it all serves her singing. He plays around her melodies, accents lyrical elements she highlights, and responds rhythmically and melodically to choices she makes. I’ve been devouring everything they’ve put out together, and I’m grateful there’s a lot of it.