Something Good

Go! Another singer we did not know. Kelley Johnson has a precise phrasing, a silky tone and a crystalline diction. It's already a lot, which does not prevent it from scatter with a certain originality. Nothing is ostentatious in this disc. The music is lived from the inside. The reinterpretations that the singer dares are personal and, above all, inhabited by a subtle swing that seduces without effort. His surety of tone, the richness of his imagination, make him an interpreter of standards that stands out with no apparent effort. There's a bit of Mark Murphy in his way of stretching the sentences and an ability to modulate warmly around the words that also recalls Carmen McRae. Creative and very well surrounded throughout the album, it reveals a vocal talent without cabotinage. Her version of "Lullaby of birdland", at this level, is a summary of her art and demonstrates her ability to create personal arrangements that convey in depth the emotion she distills in the texts she sings. Naturally, she does all this with a disconcerting ease (which could irritate good numbers of vocalists) and a mastery, discreet certainly, but indisputable. If we finally note that the musicians who play with her in this recording are at its level, we get a record that honors jazz in particular and music in general. Something really good!