All About Jazz - Album of the week!

The sensual and talented Lucy Woodward has delivered captivating performances of rhythm & blues, soul, and rock over the past decade, stepping away from her early pop successes. She has also made remarkable contributions to jazz, starting with her early participation in the album by Joshua Shneider’s Love Speak Orchestra and her long collaborations with the group Snarky Puppy and guitarist Charlie Hunter.

Her current project—produced alongside Louk Boudesteijn, leader of the New Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra—is something special: Lucy's exceptional vocal talents shine in the blend with the colorful and imaginative orchestral writing of the Dutch arranger, reaching a peak in “A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing” by Billy Strayhorn and “Tryin' Times” by Donny Hathaway. In the latter piece, the frenetic arrangement is crafted by Dutch guitarist Jelle Roozenburg, who has previously composed for the aforementioned New Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra and other ensembles shared with Woodward and Boudesteijn. The album is the singer's seventh as a leader and her first live recording, featuring an international orchestra of musicians based in the Netherlands, including Italian saxophonist Nicoló Ricci and Ghanaian trumpeter Peter Somuah.

The musical journey unfolds in just thirty minutes but is intense and full of surprises. It opens with "Plain Gold Ring," a classic by Nina Simone, a singer whom Woodward counts among her primary influences: the beginning is solemn, almost gospel, but within minutes, the tension rises with a dramatic contrast between the vocal part and the tumultuous arrangement, returning to a calm (but not reconciled) finale.

Sound explosions, rhythmic fragments, and sharp timbral contrasts characterize the subsequent "Tryin' Times," where Lucy dramatically reinterprets the distant versions by Roberta Flack and the original composer. After the gentle "Love Me Tender," with its childlike grace, the mood ignites again with the mentioned Strayhorn piece, marked by exemplary orchestration (and vocal interpretation) featuring successive sections that blend classical climates, free fragments, elegant backdrops, excellent solos, and unusual quotations (like the closing echo of "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat"). Luxurious collective passages and an intimate, yet intense, vocal interpretation permeate "Rocketeer," which concludes the journey. A pleasure that grows with each listen, not to be missed.

Album of the week.

(Angelo Leonardi, All About Jazz)