Earlier this week, our new imprint, The MusiQ Department, debuted their initial release, a Bridget Ramsey-fronted cover of the jazz standard “The Very Thought of You” that challenges the songbook staple and pushes it in new directions. Produced at Philly’s Turtle Studios by Vince Anthony, Guthrie Ramsey, and Doug Raus, the cover takes an old song and sonically reconstitutes it, taking inspiration from an unlikely source: trap, the emergent and influential genre of our popular moment.
We’re proud to say that MusiQology artist Bridget Ramsey is having a MOMENT. With a thoughtful conversation on the MusiQology Podcast’s Season 2 premiere episode featuring Marc Lamont Hill, an upcoming music video release, and this new single, Ramsey’s creative output is ambitious, fresh and new, while still tied to the past.
Listen to the MusiQology Podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher
“The Very Thought of You” was first recorded and published in 1934 by Ray Noble and his Orchestra, sung by Al Bowlly. It has been recorded most famously by Nancy Wilson, but Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Nat “King” Cole, Billie Holiday, Ricky Nelson, Andy Williams, Perry Como, Etta James, and Rod Stewart among others. An instrumental version of it appears in the legendary film 1942 Casablanca.
Classic versions lilt languidly—the song is a settled singer’s appreciation of their lover’s image in their head. Billie Holiday’s version unwinds unhurriedly; Nat “King” Cole’s vocal unfurls as slowly as the strings that back it. This is the definition of easy listening: It’s comfortable in the vein of the songbook itself—a genealogy of music that represents checkpoints in musicians’ careers and repertoires.
So why mess with a good thing?
The answer, we’d say, is, “Why not?” Why not explore the songbook and bring that genealogy forward contextually, drawing on the sonic influences of the past and present in concert? Why not invent “trap jazz?”
This was the question Anthony and the Ramseys asked in the studio: The result was this new recording which draws an unlikely and striking inspiration from trap, the Southern hip-hop style popularized in the mid-2000s that uses synthesizers, off-beat, disjointed instrumentals, and murky moods to capture and soundtrack a new moment in American musical history. Spawning the careers of groups such as Migos and Future and apparently influential for acts as high-profile as Beyoncé Knowles herself, who was inspired by the genre for “Drunk in Love” among other songs.
Here, Bridget Ramsey’s classical training and exhaustive knowledge of the songbook lend the new version a vocal indebted to those who come before but reconstituted through the genre’s clicking, sub-divided hi-hat cymbals, droning piano, and bass hits. “With The Very Thought Of You, on the production side I wanted to lay groundwork for Bridget’s vocals to go into new territory for her as a vocalist while staying true in tribute Nancy Wilson’s style of performance,” Anthony says. “Mixing elements of contemporary trap/808 drum machine sounds with lush jazz piano chords played to rhythm creates a vibe that I think is both fresh and familiar. Dr. Ramsey played a pass of the chords, and then I took that recording and sampled it, adding layers of drums and synthesizers and the old and new sounds worked together well. When I heard it all together I knew that Bridget’s voice would have the opportunity to really shine and soar over it.”
We’re excited to share it with you.
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