AZURE McCALL
The Gift (MuseFX)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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One of the hidden treasures of the Hawaiian islands for some thirty years, Azure McCall is a jazz singer in the highest sense of the term. Not a pop singer with some 'jazzy' inflections. Not an R&B singer with a couple standards in her songbook. A jazz singer. The kind that can take a pop song, or an R&B song, or just about any song you can imagine and perform it in a way that's purely jazz.

Outside the realm of the serious scat singers it's very hard to define the qualities that make a jazz singer. The nature of song militates against excessive improvisation by a vocalist in many ways, making the jazz vocal more a matter of timing and inflection, but not wholly that, or wholly anything. It's definitely one of those "I know it when I hear it" kind of things, and I hear it on every one of this disc's thirteen cuts.

It's not just the material, which ranges from standards from the books of writers like Yip Harburg, Harold Arlen and Alan Bergman to the folk-pop of Joni Mitchell, and includes five terrific new songs from longtime McCall collaborator, pianist Tennyson Stephens. It's not just the backing, although that's provided by an A-list lineup that's anchored by Stephens, bassist Alphonso Johnson and drummer Vinnie Collauta. It's not just, well, anything. It's everything, and most of all it's the incredible talent of Azure McCall.

Days on the beach and nights in the clubs of Hawaii seem to have been pretty satisfying for McCall, but I hope she's not too attached to home, because this album, her first release with national distribution, is going to have folks far and wide demanding to see her everywhere, real soon.

Track List:

Without A Song * Hello Love * Change * Shades Of Scarlet Conquering * Not A Day Goes By * Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe * Be Cool * I Don't Know What To Do * Shooting Star * Mr. Mystery * Time * The Real Deal * You Must Believe In Spring

© 2004 - Shaun Dale