By her own admission vocalist Allison Adams Tucker is new to the world of jazz yet after checking out her new release ‘Come With Me’ the question has to be ‘what took her so long'? Indeed what initially appears to be no more than an eclectic re-imagining of some timeless classics turns out to be a wonderful showcase for Tucker’s vocal dexterity and an incredible platform from which a choice band of guest musicians ensure a relaxed jazz vibe throughout.
This is particularly so with ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’ where a trumpet solo from Derek Cannon really sets the mood. The one original composition, Tucker’s own ‘You Got Me’, could have come right out of a Broadway musical. Its beauty is immense and is sensitively complemented by great work from Peter Sprague on guitar.
Before Tucker’s new infatuation with jazz she indulged her passion for world cultures and the music that binds them by, in addition to her own, studying and singing in six languages. Her rendition of ‘Volver’ in faultless Spanish sets up Fabio Oliveira to make a telling contribution on percussion and she switches to Portuguese for the bubbly ‘O Barquino’. Here Sprague is again influential on guitar, the flute of Louisa West is spellbinding and Kamou Kenyatta grabs the attention on piano. In fact, on each and every one of the eight songs with which Kenyatta is involved, everything he touches is of the highest quality. Ultra tight interpretations of standards such as ‘I’ve Got The World On A String’ and ‘Blue Skies’ are both great cases in point as are ‘You Belong To Me’ and ‘Over The Rainbow’ which serve as magnificent vehicles for Tucker’s crystal clear tones.
Returning to her linguistic magnificence Tucker delivers Piaf’s immortal ‘La Vie En Rose’ in its original French and, despite its oriental intro, does the same for ‘The Sea’ or, more correctly, ‘La Mer’. If that wasn’t enough she prefaces ‘My Funny Valentine’ with the hugely evocative ‘Sakura’ in authentic Japanese before returning to Portugal for the gentle ‘Rosa’.
With ‘Come With Me’ Allison Adams Tucker is demonstrating that great jazz is not always defined by what a song is but more by how it feels. Certainly the way she infuses all twelve tracks with her own jazzy groove really does feel special and deserves to get her noticed.
For more go to www.allisonadamstucker.com