Jacqui Naylor “Lucky Girl”

Jacqui Naylor’s eighth album is also her most democratic. Prior to the recording sessions, Naylor assembled a group of 90 friends and fans, performed 25 songs, asked her guests to rate each on a 1-5 scale, and included the highest-scoring 15 on Lucky Girl. Continuing along a democratic path, she shares producer credits with all three bandmates: Art Khu (piano, organ, Rhodes, guitars), Jon Evans (basses, percussion, lap steel), and Josh Jones (drums and percussion). As the title suggests, the 15 tracks—six covers, including a stunning treatment of Neil Young’s “Only Love Can Break Your Heart,” and nine originals, all co-written with Khu—tend to be sunny. Even on the melancholy “It Was Supposed to Work Out,” rays of optimism poke through the gloom. Naylor’s trademark “acoustic smashing”—collisions of jazz standards and rock tunes, with the band playing one while she sings the other —is less prevalent than on previous outings, exercised just once. But it is her finest to date, with “Surrey With the Fringe on Top” floated atop `George Benson’s “Breezin’.” With her unique vocal style— full and rich as Diana Krall’s, yet idiosyncratic as Nellie McKay’s and shot-through with a keen folk-rock sensibility—Naylor remains one of the most superbly arresting vocalists around. Her songwriting skills are, as always, equally sublime, extending from the high-stepping pop of the title track and propulsive magnanimity of “Dreamin’ Prayin’ Wishin'” to the fervent sensuality of “Close the Door” and sweet contentment of “Beautiful.” By Christopher...

Diana Panton “To Brazil With Love”

“To Brazil With Love” from vocalist/composer Diana Panton is a perfect jewel of a CD. Each delightful track is an exquisitely manicured musical facet, set firmly in the Brazilian idiom and seamlessly sung in French and English by Panton. Her diaphanous vocal sound never insists and her high speed vibrato is like the beat of a hummingbird’s heart – natural, untainted and pure. The Brazilian-infused material is an eclectic mix, including compositions from Panton, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Paul McCartney (check out the moving interpretation of And I Love Her/Him featuring Don Thompson on piano rendering chord changes that never entered McCartney’s mind). On the recording, Panton has cleverly surrounded herself with superb musicians – including multi-instrumentalist and producer Thompson on bass, piano and vibes. Guitarist Reg Schwager makes a stellar contribution with his exquisite solos, as does flautist Bill McBirnie. The rich, sonorous linear lines of Kiki Misumi’s cello also enhance the arrangements. Highlights include Panton’s Is it Really You, Samba Saravah (from the 1966 film A Man and a Woman, with authentic vocal and percussion from Maninho Costa), Jobim’s So Nice replete with a lovely, breezy vocal and a take on the 1963 Bobby Vee hit, The Night Has a Thousand Eyes – demonstrating that Diana Paton certainly knows her way around a standard, Brazilian or otherwise. This is a stunning recording on all levels, and we should all look forward to more from the lovely Ms. Panton. Written by Lesley...

Kate Reid “The Love I’m In”

Kate Reid is a working jazz singer and pianist appearing regularly with her quartet at jazz venues all over the Los Angeles area including Steamers Caf? and Jazz Club, Vitello?s, The Jazz Bakery, The Lighthouse, Sangria, and Betty Hoover?s Jazz at the A Frame. She has worked with many of the great jazz musicians in Los Angeles including guitarists Ron Eschete and Larry Koonse and drummer Roy McCurdy to name just a few. She is in demand by audiences for her swing style and delivery of great jazz standard lyrics. Kate?s latest CD ?The Love I?m In? was released in September of 2011 and features tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts and pianist Otmaro Ruiz. Like her 2008 release, ?Sentimental Mood?, ?The Love I?m In? includes tunes from the American songbook. Kate has also sung and appeared with many noted artists including Jon Hendricks, Grady Tate, Joe Williams, Maynard Ferguson, Rosemary Clooney, Mercer Ellington, Della Reese, Don Shelton, Lionel Hampton, Mark Murphy, Kevin Mahogany, Paul Anka, Liza Minelli, Tito Puente and the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Kate is a working session singer in L.A. Her film credits include ?Land of the Lost? (2009) and ?Tooth Fairy? (2010), ?John Carter? (release date in 2012), ?Iris? (2011 Cirque de Soleil), and ?The Lomax? (release date in 2012). Other recent recording work includes demos for Hal Leonard Publishing, commercial spots for T-Mobile and Suntory Whiskey. Kate has also sung backing vocals for artists X Japan and Josh Groban. She has extensive experience in group singing and recording. She has recorded many broadway and musical theater style shows for Royal Caribbean and Costa Cruise Lines. She also lent her voice to the Orange Bowl half time and parade shows in the mid 90s and was selected as one of four back-up vocalists for the recorded and nationally televised Summit of the Americas broadcast produced by Quincy...

Judy Wexler

UNDER A PAINTED SKY “Few singers would dare dive into music associated with Johnny Mathis, Carmen McRae, Abbey Lincoln and the 1962 film, The Music Man, on the same album; even fewer would be able to pull it off as vocalist Judy Wexler does on Under A Painted Sky. Wexler possesses a voice for the ages, and puts it to good use on a dozen delicious numbers that cover myriad moods and spotlight the stellar instrumentalists in her band. Wexler’s prior releases — Easy On The Heart (Rhombus, 2005) and Dreams And Shadows (Jazzed Media, 2008) — were elevated by classy arrangements and pianistic underpinnings from pianist Alan Pasqua, and this partnership continues to bear fruit on this project. Pasqua paints pictures of a sunny nature (“Wonderful Wonderful”), crafts spine-tingling settings (“Avec Le Temps”) and directs swinging scenes that delight in every way (“The Great City” and “Whisper Not”), leaving Wexler free to fully explore the possibilities that reside within each one of these gems. Wexler’s vocals are ebullient and enthusiastic on “Wonderful Wonderful,” as the album gets underway, but she isn’t all sunshine and splendor. She deals in flirty and sensual singing on “An Occasional Man,” delivers enthralling vocals of a haunting nature with “Avec Le Temps,” touches on the ups-and-downs in the game of love during “And How I Hoped For Your Love,” and utters a wise warning about getting sucked into the quicksand of New York’s social scene with “The Great City.” While Wexler needs no help selling any of these songs, the instrumentalists add volumes to each piece, as they mirror the moods that are established through the arrangements and vocals. Tenor saxophonist Bob Mintzer adds some grit to “The Great City,” Bob Sheppard’s soprano saxophone swoops and soars with a fine balance between grace and gusto on “Till There Was You,” and Walt Fowler’s flugelhorn emphasizes the dream-like state of...

Marlene VerPlanck

“One Dream at a Time” “Even by this singer’s very high standards, this is an exceptionally good CD. As so often happens, she has taken great care in her selection of songs, finding some underused standards, some forgotten gems from the past, a few delightful originals, and a handful that started life in or close to the jazz world. To all of this material she brings the musical expertise and understanding that has marked her work for many years. “This is the first album Marlene has recorded since the death of her husband, Billy VerPlanck, and there are touches throughout, real and recalled, that reflect his importance in his wife’s musical life as her career-long arranger. “Two songs, As Far As I’m Concerned and One Dream At A Time, were composed by Billy for lyrics by Leon Nock and discovered by Marlene after her husband’s death. Another of Billy’s songs is Quietly, with Ray Hoffman’s lyric. “Also fulfilling expectations is Marlene’s choice of accompanists. All three trios are excellent, with good solos from all, especially the pianists, while the presence of an organ on three tracks brings an unfamiliar but very well-realised element to the singer’s work. “As for Marlene’s vocal sound, the bell-like freshness of her voice is as good as it has ever been and she brushes aside the decades with ease. She sound so fresh, in fact, that it is tempting to think that there might be a Dorian Gray-like tape in the attic. But that suggests a pact with the devil and she is much too nice for that. “This CD can be very warmly recommended, especially to the Friends of Good Songs, who might most readily find it through marleneverplanck.com.” — Bruce Crowther, Jazz Journal...

Kenia Celebrates Dorival Caymmi

Brazilian Vocalist Kenia Pays Homage To The Dorival Caymmi Songbook On Her New Mooka Records Release Kenia Celebrates Dorival Caymmi Ever hungry for new challenges, the sultry-voiced Brazilian enchantress Kenia, who reemerged on the jazz scene two years ago with the critically-acclaimed album Simply Kenia, serves up one of the most demanding and satisfying projects of her three decade long career with Kenia Celebrates Dorival Caymmi on Mooka Records. Renowned for her ability to translate the complex rhythms of her homeland into jazzy creations that made her a star of the smooth jazz movement two decades ago, the singer digs even deeper into Brazil’s cultural legacy on this compelling and artistically rich 15-track session. She tackles the supremely melodic and culturally telling legacy of the Brazilian composer and singer who spent over seven decades creating an aural portrait of Bahia, the stronghold of Brazil’s vibrant African culture. The author of such fabled standards as “Samba da Minha Terra,” “Doralice” and “Voce Ja Foi a Bahia,” Caymmi has long been recognized as a singular figure in Brazilian popular culture, truly an artist without peers in a country noted for a profusion of legendary musicians. “Dorival’s music lies just between the two major movements in MPB (Msica Popular Brasileira, or Brazilian Popular Music),” Kenia explains, “the Samba of the 1920’s and 30’s and the Bossa Nova of the late 1950s and ’60s. Caymmi’s music served as a kind of a smooth transition between these two styles. And, although he had two very distinct lines of composition, the link between these two movements is characterized by his firm foundation of Samba, sprinkled with some Bahian spices.” To ensure an impeccably authentic interpretation of this collection of Caymmi classics, Kenia employed a rhythm section of first-call Brazilian musicians. Fernando Merlino, who crafted some arrangements and plays piano, is joined by bassist Leo Traversa and percussionist...