“I AM big; it’s the pictures that got small”
Norma Desmond-Sunset Boulevard
Vocalist Patrisha Thomson shows a style of singing and delivery that is akin to watching a movie with old time stars Paul Muni or Luise Ranier. Unlike the modern day of crash test dummies being on the screen an actor or actress back then made each visible nuance an art; a raised eyebrow, an extra lilt to the voice. The same is true for veteran vocalist Patrisha Thomson, here teamed with an all star lineup of Steve Rawlins/p-arr, Tom Peterson/ts-fl, Gordon Peeke/dr and Paul Morin/b. Except for a couple of well crafted and upbeat originals, she focuses on interpreting standards, and uses her delicate but expressive voice like a veteran reliever, changing the timing, speed, direction, spin and location of each delivery and (literally) pitch. Thus, with Peterson’s tenor sax, she teases the melody of “That Old Feeling” with a delicate vibrato, while she world-wisely saunters with him on “Estate.” Peeke’s bass lines supply a catchy groove that Thomson gracefully glides in and out of on “Just in Time” and a lively “Ain’t Misbehavin’” while Rawlin’s piano is applied like mascara on the chestnut “Everything Must Change.” A way of phrasing that has each well enunciate lyric telling a story via the way it’s conveyed.; an art that needs to be regained by today’s vocalists.