Look, I’m a happily married man of 38+ years. I’m devoted to my lovely bride and am gratefully faithful to her. But I also married, not buried, and know something about a woman’s ability to get a man’s temperature to rise a degree or so without getting COVID. In this day of “girly men” needing shots and doses of testosterone, as well as various medicines like Viagra to help guys “perform” (as if romance were like a trapeze act), its refreshing to hear a vocalist like Lauren Henderson who can actually heat up a man’s blood flow. Think of the scene in the classic teen rock movie The Girl Can’t Help It where Jayne Mansfield “winks an eye and bread slices turn to toast”. That certain thing, called ‘the most’ in the title song of that film, is in vocalist Lauren Henderson.
Most ladies scream, shout or whine. Henderson coos, keeps to one range and seductively holds back, wisely knowing that a man is more attracted to a woman in a nighty than just stark naked. She mixes and matches with a team of Joel Ross/vib, Sean Mason-John Chin/p, Eric Wheeler/b, Doe Dyson/dr and Nick Tannura-Gabe Schneiderg/ for various late night moods.
With a piano trickling like a stream and a loping bass, Henderson gets intimate on “Perficia” while she flows around Ross’s vibes like a mist on “Fria”. She saunters across the floor on “Amistad” and is playful on the blues of “Deseo”. But best of all is when she is in vocal deshabille with Tannura on acoustic guitar, creating enough electricity to help the grid of 1000 Teslas on “Febrero Hums” and “Veinte Anos II”. Julie London built an entire career on singing less and saying more, and with the addition of Latin blood, Henderson takes it to the next level. Not for the faint of heart!