Today’s musical question has to be “100 years from now, what composer from the 20th Century will singers use for their songbooks?” Judging by today’s releases, it seems to be a neck and neck race between the Beatles and Joni Mitchell. Here, singer Janiece Jaffe and pianist Monika Herzig take on Ms. Mitchell’s wide ranging catalogue with guests Jeremy Allen-Peter Kienle/b, Greg Ward/sax, Cassius Goens/dr and Carolyn Dutton/vi .
The team gets loose and artsy on a prismatic take of ”The Hissing of Summer Lawns”, with Jaffe sounding street wise with Dutton and a strong but dainty “The Circle Game” with Kienle. The interpretations are clever, and Jaffe is flexible enough to know when to sound wide-eyed or world weary. The team courts the sparks.