This one is going to catch you by surprise. As far as I can tell, this is the second album by Lauren Henderson, and it makes me want to find the first one. It’s a honey!
She has a Latin and Caribbean background, but her voice has a soft and sultry; not really emphasizing dynamics as much as feel and nuance. She’s teamed with a flexible team of Riley Mulherkar-Jonathan Powel/tp-fh, Luis Fouche’/as, Sullivan Fortner/p-key, Ameen Saleem/b and Jeremy Clemons/dr-perc and they deler moods that range from B3 smoky “Twisting Squares” to bopping latin on “Quizas Vaya.” Henderson herself picks some standards and does some tricky themes with them when she’s not writing her own attractive tunes.
Of the former, her delicate voice with Clemons delivers an intro to a almost vaudevillian “Y:ou and the Night and the Music” that eventually slides into a latin saunter, whele she and Fortner’s piano gets dreamy and alluring on “There Is No Greater Love” and Fortner chimes along on “”My Foolisngt Heart.” Her work with Saleem on “December Ballad” is shadowy and atmospheric” while she gets soft and sultry on the funky soul on “Accede” and lightly smokes like a filtered cigarette on the slinky “Stranded.” Lots of sepia tones here that make you want more of the same. Gotta check this one out in concert!