Sing To the Sky

One of the most denigrated categories is "jazz female vocalists." Most either try to sound like a quirky indie like Norah Jones, or try to jump on the Diana Krall bandwagon by ONCE AGAIN revisiting the Great American Songbook. Well, if you want something else, here is an artist that has the pulse of jazz, but delivered in fresh voice. What a joy!

Emma Larsson writes all of the material here, and it's worth listening to. She bonds with an elastic team of Shedrick Mitchell/p, Eric Revis/b, Billy Drummond/dr and Kenneth Whalum III/sax and uses her sharp cornered voice in an elastic and yet swinging way.

She has a wonderfully playful time toying with beats and spaces her, her lazy cadence on the dreamy "Before The Rain Comes" toys with Drummond's cymbal work, while the subtle shifts in tempos veers in and out of the spaces of "Watch My Garden Grow" and "No Ordinary Love." She holds notes for an extra breath as Mitchell tip-toes through "I Sing to the Sky" and coos impressionistically on "Consolation" and floats over the crisp groove of the rhythm team, hold back the reins ever so slightly on "In A Quandry." This lady has GOT to tour to promote this disc!