Melissa Gardiner sings and plays her trombone in an album dedicated to empowerment of women. She brings along guests Ingrid Jensen/tp, Tia Fuller/sax, Weedie Braimah-David Donley, Anthony Saturno/g and vocalists Sydnie Eure with Marissa ones along with a team of Byron cage/dr and organists-keyboardists Andrew Carrol, Willerm Delisfort, Danile Pugh and William Gorman.
The result is a collection of speaking vignettes, sometimes alone, other times with instrumental backing, that have the ladies speaking about their lives, most cozy is the one with Melissa’s mom Julien. Musically, Jensen is muted on a soulful “Slowly” and open on a hip “Hit On This.” Tia Fuller digs in with some grooved keys on “People Pleaser,” while Gardiner herself hits hard with Cage on “Bump” and grooves on “Let Me Lead.” The multiple layers of keys make for congested listening at times, with the album coming across more like a cut and paste mosaic than anything else.