I first heard Judi Silvano’s flexible voice on her highly successful contributions to husband Joe Lovano’s seminal Rush Hour album eons ago. Her solo material veers left of center, even in the most traditional of song selections, as here. The songs themselves on his release are mainstream pre-modern jazz and standards, but with the minimalist support of Fred Jacobs/tp and Peer Tomlinson/p, the treatment goes a bit da da-esque. There is a stark beauty to the setting, and Jacobs lends gentle and servile support with either obliggatos or solos on tunes like “But Beautiful” or “If You Could See Me Now.” Tomlinson himself works as an excellent safety net throughout, but also delivers some lovely intros on “Let’s Fall In Love” and “Still We Dream,” but it’s the creativity of Silvano, using half tones, quarter tones and dead center tones to improvise without scatting on material like “Mood Indigo” or “A Flower Is A Lonesome Thing” that give a creative nuance to improvisation and interpretation. Bold but beautiful.
Jazzed Media Records