Details: When writer-producer David Hajdu was growing up, he was drawn to a mystical book on his mother's shelf entitled Lives of the Saints. This was a collection of tales of Catholic saints and their heroic martyrdom. Later in life, Hajdu began to collect his own stories of ordinary individuals who, through their deeds, attained exalted status in his mind, essentially created his own canon of secular saints. For his new recording, which borrows the same title, Lives of the Saints, Hajdu enlists an assemblage of first-tier composers and performers to tell the stories of ten remarkable people from history, all of whom happen to be women. Women who did extraordinary things but suffered in some ways for what did or what they believed. Hajdu has been writing songs about real-life figures and events for unique collaborations with jazz composers and performers for more than 15 years. Lives of the Saints is his fourth recording of such material. Viewing contemporary songwriting as autobiographical to a fault, Hajdu looks beyond his own experience for inspiration, bringing himself to the material through his idiosyncratic approach to language and creative collaboration. As Stephen Holden of The New York Times has described Hajdu's songs, they are "an unexpected happy marriage of Stephen Sondheim and Joni Mitchell for the 21st century." For Lives of the Saints, Hajdu sought out a group of creative artists he admired but never worked with before. He had never met pianist/composer Helen Sung before reaching out to her. Hajdu had only heard and appreciated her work, especially her Sunnyside debut Sung with Words. Vocalist Aubrey Johnson caught Hajdu's ear and he soon found her writing wonderful but underappreciated. Hajdu had become acquainted with trumpeter Dave Douglas years earlier and sought to renew their association for this project. Finally, Renee Rosnes, Hajdu's longtime collaborator, contributed two music for two pieces. As in his other projects, Hajdu wrote the words and produced the recording, while the composers handled the music. Along with the composers, Hajdu welcomed woodwind player Chet Doxas, cellist Marika Hughes, bassist Simón Willson and drummer Rudy Royston to bring these pieces to life. The subjects of the song vary from the famous to the unknown, from ancient history to the recent past. Hajdu came to know Lena Horne well near the end of her life, as he interviewed and befriended her around the time he wrote a book on Billy Strayhorn. Hedy Lamarr was someone Hajdu had long wanted to write about. Hajdu and Douglas brainstormed together to hatch plans to write about Hypatia and Leonora Carrington. Johnson suggested a song about Ada Lovelace, who coincidentally, Hajdu had just studied and wrote about for a new book. There are many ways to be saintly, and not every way is always duly honored. David Hajdu's Lives of the Saints celebrates a group of secular heroes whose varied achievements are beyond belief.

Aubrey Johnson - The Lives of the Saints - Portraits in Songs with Words by David Hajdu (CD)