Singer/songwriter Anandi sing and plays guitar alongside Greg Goebel, who plays just about everything else on this modern collection of minstrel tunes. The heartfelt messages range froum an earnest “Mandela” with warm keyboards to a thoughtful “A Better Way” with impressionistic piano. Tenor saxist Adrian Baxter joins in on the uptempo “Witchi Tai To” and the heartfelt “Don’t Go To Bed Angry” is akin to Joni Mitchell-esque reflections. Kind of “Blue”.
Vocalist Sofia Rubinais teamed with Evgeny Lebedev/p, Anton Revnyuk/b, Ignat Kravtsov/dr and the Main Strings Quartet for a collection of mostly originals. There Is a parlor feel with the strings on the rich “Surgery” and lots of pastel’d imprssion s on “Taim” and the dreamy “Great Life”. She gets expressive and flexible on “Morning Etude” and passionate for a soulful stirring of “ Unsung Song”, and giving a rich read on George Duke’s “Someday” with the most jazzy tune being a fluid read of Chick Corea’s “Open Your Eyes You Can Fly”. Minstrel of the dawn.