In another experiment, producer
Creed Taylor teams
O'Day with the alternately Latin and bop-grounded quartet of vibraphonist
Cal Tjader -- and he gets some amazing performances from this team.
O'Day sounds as if she is delighted with
Tjader's polished Afro-Cuban grooves, gliding easily over the rhythms, toying with the tunes, transforming even a tune so locked into its trite time as "Mr. Sandman" into a stimulating excursion. Indeed,
O'Day's freewheeling phrasing becomes downright sexy on "That's Your Red Wagon" and
Dave Frishberg's delicious parody of a spoiled honeybunch, "Peel Me a Grape." Also, thanks to
Taylor's obsession with good engineering and tasteful applications of reverb,
O'Day's voice sounds much fuller and more attractive in his productions than on her
Norman Granz-produced albums. ~ Richard S. Ginell