LaVerne Butler's jazz vocals on A Foolish Thing To Do emphasizes her fluid mastery of the jazz form and her genuine joy in the music. The beautiful vocalist sings 12 blues-inflected jazz gems written by some of America's most prolific songwriters on this follow-up to her chart-topping Blues In The City. Accompanied by Terrell Stafford on trumpet,
Bruce Barth on piano, Darryl Hall on bass and
Victor Lewis on drums, Butler opens with "A Foolish Thing To Do," a love-gone-wrong blues she co-wrote with
Bruce Barth. Terrell Stafford's trumpet announces the fateful theme and punctuates Butler's vocals throughout the song before easing into a solo with a bluesy jazz dialect reminiscent of the great
Louis Armstrong.
LaVerne Butler takes command of the lyrics on "Make It Easy On Yourself" and finds her wringing the tears from it whereas so many other vocalists have delivered it in such a glib matter-of-fact way. In addition to the excellent string accompaniment on three compositions and
Bruce Barth's piano stylings throughout this great program,
LaVerne Butler's graceful creativity, tone, phrasings and emotion are among the shining elements that make up her very cool tools of vocal expression and natural talent. ~ Paula Edelstein