This is the second release I’ve heard by the vocalist Eugenie Jones, and with this being a 2 disc outing, I’m doubly impressed from the first time, and that’s saying something. She writes a few of the tunes, teams up with some bona fide jazzers, and has a confident and varied delivery of singing that draws you into each song. What more do you want?
The album was recorded in New York, Dallas, Seattle and Chicago with trios to quintets mixing and matching artists including, but not limited to Reggie Workman/b, Bernard Purdie/b, Marquis Hill/tp, Bill Anschell-Peter Adams-Shaun Martin/p, Bobby Sanabria/perc, Julien Priester/tb, Jay Thomas/tp, Quincy Davis-Clipper Anderson-Lonnie Placixo/b and Xavier Breaker-D’Vonne Lewis-Quincy Davis/dr.
As far as the material, she is nimble as she scats over the festive take of “I Got Rhythm”, and she swoops with a lovely earthy read of “You Can Have Him”. A glorious intro with Adams glides into her own luscious “The GiIfe Of Live” while she struts out with some hip soul on her “Ey Brother”. Jones displays her jazz chops on her modal “One More Night To Burn” whle sleek with Workman’s bass and Purdie’s groove on “Sittin’ At The Bar”. She reaches down with Priester and Thomas on Billy Strayhorn’s “Multicolored Blue, goes Old School Memphis Soul with a Booker T Jonesish Delvon Lamarr on the organ for her swampy “But I Do” and gives a funky shake to Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies”, adding on some extra BBQ sauce on a greasy read of Nina Simone’s “Do I Move You?”. As they used to say before it became politically incorrect, “That’s a lotta woman”.