Here are some of the latest sounds from women singers you might not be aware of.
Katharine McPhee is better known as an actress, but since I’ve never seen her anywhere I don’t have a prejudice one way or the other. He voice is soft and delicate, and her selection of LA Cats (Jo La Barbera/dr, Reuben Rogers/b, Alan Pasqua/p, Darek Oles/b, Peter Erskine/dr, John Clayton/b, etc) is superb. The moods all stay sepia-toned, whether with strings as on the starkly personal “Everything Must Change” and delicate “I’ll Be Seeing You” or in the small group format such as restrained and intimate “Night and Day.” Fragile sounds.
Lisa Bernstein delivers both vocals and poetry as she interprets Cole Porter. She tells bits of stories on “Wake up and Dream” and “Sonia and Solomon/I Happen to Like New York” while going modal on “In the Still of the Night” and languid on “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye.” She has an infectious sense of swing as on “Easy to Love” and “I Get A Kick Out of You,” but her tone gets a bit too bright and sharp, aking to Jackie McLean’s alto, as on “All Of You.” Earnest and overeager.
Amy London has a classic Broadway sound and delivery to her voice, but uses it in a wide variety of exciting fashions here. She teams with the likes of Fred Hersch-Peter Madsen/p, Dr. Lonnie smith/key, Harvie S-Dean Johnson/b, Eliot Zigmund-Victor Lewis/dr, Bob Franceschini-Bob Mintzer/ts and others for clever reads such as a wide ranging swoop of “Sugar” to a moody and modal “Naima.” Her bop feel is impeccable on a soulful “Bohemia After Dark” and is tensile and poignant with Hersch during “You Are There.” She dives like a pelican on the kill during “Love For Sale” and sizzles with Smiths’ B3 on a smoky “You’ve Changed.” When’s she hitting LA?