During her visit to New York City for the 2023 Jazz Congress, Sylvia Brooks felt compelled to visit the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. While there, she was struck by a musical inspiration as she heard “Amazing Grace” at the hallowed ground where nearly 3,000 people lost their lives.
This new album from vocalist Sylvia Brooks was recorded live at Herb Albert’s Vibrato Jazz Grill, and finds her revisiting some material she released on her studio albums. Joining her on this release are Christian Jacob on piano, David Hughes on bass, Kevin Kanner on drums, David Witham on keyboards and accordion, Jeff Bunnell on trumpet and flugelhorn, and Brian Scanlon on tenor saxophone and flute. She opens the album with a delicious rendition of “When The Sun Comes Out,” written by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler. It’s a song she recorded for her debut album, 2009’s Dangerous Liaisons. There is something sexy about this rendition, in the horns and in her vocal approach, particularly the power behind it. And of course it features some really nice work on piano.
Pristine and powerful jazz vocals light up timeless sentiments throughout this musically sublime live album from Sylvia Brooks and Christian Jacob.
Celebrating an extensive career by revisiting some favourite songs from her performance repertoire, Sylvia Brooks delivers ten freshly captured recordings of big-band soulful jazz tracks, elevated by faultless musical unity across a live set of piano, bass, wind and rhythm.
This live jazz album from Sylvia Brooks was made with help from pianist Christian Jacob, who is also her musical director. It’s an album of mostly familiar vocal standards and features Brooks strong singing voice.
While Brooks shines on these many times well known songs, her live group also covers Jacobs’ composition “The Red Pig Flew Up The hill.” She also provided the lyrics to “The Flea Markets of Paris.” This latter one, and “Holding Back Tears,” are taken from Signature, Brooks’ 2022 album that focused on her original music. Yes, she knows her way around many American standard songs, but she also has added her personal songwriting signature to this long tradition.
On continue notre réveil en douceur avec un moment musical des plus magiques dévoilé par Sylvia Brooks et son album « Signature » à découvrir au plus vite. L’opus va accompagner toute notre semaine, de la plus douce et belle des manières.
C’est sur 9 titres aussi enivrants les uns que les autres que la chanteuse nous emporte dans un voyage à travers le jazz et surtout les mélodies solaires, dignes des plus grands. Avec sa tinte soul, parfois subtilement blues, sa ‘signature’ musicale est savoureuse, irrésistible et réchauffe les coeurs.
Jazz can be a much-misunderstood genre, thought by many to be the realm of complex time signatures and almost rules-free improvisation, an elitist and virtuosic musical realm. Then again, doesn’t every genre have such sub-sections within their spectrum? Jazz, like every other genre, is first and foremost entertainment, and as such is accessible, infectious and seductive, and that is certainly a perfect by-line for the type of jazz that Sylvia Brooks delivers.