kev rowland
As soon as this album starts, with a delicate and moving rendition of Sting’s “Fragile” (from his 1987 album ‘…Nothing Like The Sun’), one knows that this is going to be something quite special indeed. Rachel is a classic jazz singer, with a voice that is velvet and powerful, as happy providing scat as she is just rolling around the lyrics. Guitarist Dave Stryker has provided all the arrangements and also produced the album, and he has kept her voice very much to the fore and often takes a back seat himself so that Rachel is often just accompanied by drum, bass and piano. Rachel’s sister, violinist Sara Caswell, also adds her talent to proceedings but only on three songs.
Recorded in just one day in May, this really has the feeling of a jazz singer in total control at all times, bringing in a warmth and dexterity with her voice that is a total delight throughout. Jazz singing rarely gets any better than this, and one can imagine her in a New York club holding the audience in the palm of her hand. The title song, originally by Feist, is taken away from the original and moved into something that is a soft jazz classic. This is a truly wonderful album, one which shows off Rachel’s voice and talents, and is a delight from start to end.