For her debut recording,
Carrie Wicks takes a step beyond the torch singers and songbook repeaters who dominate so much of the contemporary jazz vocals available on the market. There are two major components to her difference. First, she's enlisted some of the best and brightest of the sparkling Northwest jazz scene, with mainstays of the Origin label helping out and invoking their own particular forms and legends. Second, she adds a touch of emotionality to her delivery that is missing in much of the rote lounge-style songs of torch singers. She adds a sense of pensiveness and thoughtfulness to her songs that makes them ponderous, but lightly so. The result is an engaging sound, somewhere between the quiet power of a strong blues crooner and the sweet lightness of
Annie Ross. The songs included show off each aspect in separate lighting, using the band to highlight the tone in just the right ways: a drum solo in "Baby Get Lost" provides accentuation for the message; pianist
Bill Anschell invokes the spirit of
Bill Evans in the lighter "Comes Love." Excellent material for fans of female vocal jazz in its earlier, more original forms. ~ Adam Greenberg