A blithely swinging crooner with a warm and jaunty improvisational style, trumpeter/vocalist
Jeremy Davenport showcases his nightclub-honed charm on his third studio album and Basin Street Records debut,
We'll Dance 'Til Dawn. A regular on the New Orleans music scene,
Davenport made good on his '90s tag as
Harry Connick, Jr.'s protégé by performing weekly at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in the French Quarter. If
Davenport's 2005 concert album, Live at the Bistro, was an earthy, unpredictable, and unfiltered document of his nightclub act, then 2009's
We'll Dance 'Til Dawn is the more refined and polished business card follow-up. Where Bistro showcased how
Davenport -- a Missouri-born/N.Y.C.-trained musician -- had fully steeped himself in the rhythmic gumbo of the New Orleans jazz tradition,
We'll Dance 'Til Dawn is a dry martini of an album filled with crisp, urbanely delivered standards and supple afterglow ballads. In that sense, it's a much more modern take on the New Orleans tradition and frames
Davenport in a wider lens than just a New Orleans act. Here listeners find more of
Davenport's clever,
Gershwin-esque originals like "Almost Never" and "I Could Hear Your Heartbeat." Equally as engaging are his cover choices, like his propulsive Latin-tinged take on "That Old Black Magic" and his surprisingly effective contemporary jazz reworking of
Jimmy Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." That said, there's plenty of Southern hospitality here, including
Davenport's playful duet with the famous city's other singing/trumpet-playing institution,
Kermit Ruffins, on "Mr. New Orleans." A
Davenport original, the track finds the two members of this dynamic duo celebrating and poking fun at their respective reputations, with the gruff
Ruffins as "King of Treme" and the boyish
Davenport as "Mr. Fancy Pants." It's a joyous wink of a tune and the type of track that only performers confident in their personas can get away with. Ultimately, that's the clearest thing about
Davenport on
We'll Dance 'Til Dawn -- he knows he's got you in a spin as long as he wants. ~ Matt Collar