Some ladies just sound like fun; Marty Elkins is one of them. She teams up with a frisky team of Jon-Erik Kellso/tp, Howard Alden/g, Joel Diamond/B3, Steve Ash/p, Lee Hudson/b and Taro Okamoto/dr for a swinging and carefree collection of standards.
She sings with a twinkle in her eye as Kellso mutes his horn on a casual and relaxed “If I Could Be With You” while the team sounds united in jovial romps like “There’ll Be Some Changes Made” and the swaggering “Is You Is…” which both feature Alden’s snazzy 7 string solos. Diamond’s B3 gets smoky as Elkins sounds saucy as she preaches on “Garbage Can Blues” while she gets cozy on the shuffling “When My Sugar Walks Down the Street.” Ash and Alden sounds stately together on “I’ll Never Be The Same” as Hudson and Okamoto sound insouciant with Elkins on “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.” Each song has a casual feel, making you feel like the music is spontaneous; when are the chips gonna be passed around?
Nagel Heyer Records