Album Reviews

Eschewing both retro and modern musical gestures, the remarkable young jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant manages here to make new and fresh an album of mostly very old songs.

Miami born to a French mother and Haitian father and first involved in classical music including joining at eight years of age the Miami Chorale Society, the twenty five year old French-speaking McLorin Salvant chose to get her secondary education in France where she studied law in addition to musically focusing first on classical and baroque vocals plus jazz at the Darius Milhaud Conservatory.

She won the Thelonious Monk Jazz competition in 2010 (the judges were Patti Austin, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Kurt Elling, Al Jarreau and Dianne Reeves) and in addition to taking home $20,000 was offered a Concord Records recording contract though this, her second album was issued on Mack Avenue (her debut Cecile and the Jean-François Bonnel Paris Quintet a collaboration with one of her teachers' groups is available through PayPal).

She's performed in concert around the world and of course caught the attention of a long list of jazz greats. Now it is your turn on this impeccably produced, superb sounding album on which she's ably backed by the quartet of pianist Aaron Diehl, bassist Rodney Whitaker (who was in the Monk competition "house" band), guitarist James Chirillo and drummer Herlin Riley.

On a wide-ranging repertoire covering everything from the folk tradition of "John Henry" to Harry Woods' 1934 classic "What a Little Moonlight Can Do"—made famous by Billie Holiday— McLorin Salvant is simultaneously light and breezy and deep and thoughtful. She's playful and funny, serious and self-assured, deep and soulful and though she's covering some familiar tunes, and you can see glints of some of her influences, she sounds only like Cécile McLorin Salvant.

Her phrasing and timing are locked in yet loose and supple; her range seems unlimited. She literally creates a fresh breeze that you will feel before the end of the opener "St. Louis Gal" a song Bessie Smith recorded ninety plus years ago. That's not the oldest credited song on the album, which would be "Nobody" from the early 1900s that Ry Cooder fans will recognize from his cover. The album lists two "previously unreleased tracks" that apparently weren't on the CD.

You will fall in love the first play through, with both the musical performances and the sonics. The album was recorded at Avatar, mixed at ValveTone Studios, originally mastered by Mark Wilder at Battery Studios and mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Mastering. Recording engineer Todd Whitelock, whose long resume includes jazz, classical and rock engineering, mixing and mastering presents McLorin Salvant close miked, unprocessed and surrounded by a natural cushion of air. There's plenty of air and space on a well-presented and coherent soundstage that you'll appreciate. It can be done digitally. The producer thanks Sennheiser/Neumann USA for the loan of an MKH800 Twin condenser microphone and klavierhous for use of a Fazioli F-278 Concert Grand Piano.

On the opener she's backed only by an acoustic guitar but when the group begins playing on the next tune "I Didn't Know What Time I Was" you'll know the sonic ride will be in an open, airy spacious convertible.

This 2014 GRAMMY® nominated double LP, well-pressed at RTI, is highly recommended. It will leave you floating.