A fairly straight singer with a warm but cool voice,
Gloria Cooper at times hints at
Maxine Sullivan and
Shirley Horn. The program on
Dedicated to You is filled with superior obscurities taken from
Don Sickler's Second Floor Music publications Sing Jazz and Sing More Jazz. Many of the songs, written by jazz musicians, received their recording debut (particularly as vocals) on this set, including numbers by
John Oddo,
Hank Mobley,
Jon Burr,
Renee Rosnes, and the late
James Williams.
Cooper does a fine job of adding warmth to the lyrics, also playing piano in the backup group, which on some numbers is a full sextet featuring excellent trumpet solos from
Sickler.
Dedicated to You, which only includes two standards among the dozen songs, shows that some fine new originals were written by jazz musicians in recent times, even if most remain unknown to the general public. Singers in need of fresh material are particularly recommended to explore this outing. ~ Scott Yanow