Deanne Matley has a strong and confident voice, and uses it well on this collection of tunes the includes some covers and intriguing originals. She teams up with Paul Shrofel/key, Adrian Vedady/b, Jim Doxas/dr, Steve Raegele/g, Kiko/perc and a collection of horns and strings to change moods with the flip of the writs. She digs deep into earthy soul with Al McLean’s tenor on a hip read of Stanley Turrentine’s “Sugar” and bops with the best as she dances over Doxas’ drums on the sleek “So Long You Fool.” Vedady’s buoyant bass serves as an excellent dance partner for Matley as they are buoyant together on “Necessary Evil “ with guest voice Rana Lee.” Matley shows her ablities create an environment as she is elegant with strings on the gorgeous “The Wine We Drink” while showing grit as she growls on “Forget Me.” Impressive flexibility.
Just a note, I tend to distrust a singer’s confidence in her vocal talents when the album includes a photo in deshabille.