With Love

Jessica Williams has produced an album of intimate solo piano pieces, rendered with elegance and emotion. There's a backstory here, that Ms. Williams suffered a lumbar spine collapse, followed by lengthy and extensive medical procedures. Her self-penned liner notes suggest that the nonpyrotechnical approach was a result of the spine issues, but had she made no mention of her problem, the album would still be a testament to a musical vision of "less is more." Of nine songs, all are classics except for her lovely "Paradise of Love." Her performance of "My Foolish Heart" is breathtakingly slow; time seems to stand still as she delicately unfurls her version. "But Beautiful" seems a meditation on beauty. She closes with a somber and reflective "Somewhere," from West Side Story. Here's wishing her continued recovery, and many more albums to join her already substantial discography.