CD Review: Chris McNulty - The Song That Sings You Here.

Chris McNulty – voice; Ugonna Okegwo – bass; Marcus Gilmore – drums; Paul Bollenback – guitars; Andrei Kondokov – piano; Graham Wood – piano & Rhodes; Igor Butman – tenor & soprano sax; Anita Wardell – guest vocals.

(Review by Debra Milne)

Chris McNulty is a New York based jazz singer, who has established her reputation over the past decade or so playing in the US, Australia and Europe. The album was recorded with her regular group of international musicians from New York, Australia and Russia. 

The selection of material and the restrained backing evoke an intimate jazz club, with nicely swinging tunes such as How Little We Know, and some beautifully sung ballads, in particular Horace Silver’s Lonely Woman. The 1930s song The Lamp Is Low is also well done, and builds from a vamp with guitar, piano and vocal into a lively Latin number, with the addition of British born/Australia raised singer Anita Wardell. McNulty’s  vocals have the most attitude,  and some great rhythmic scatting, in the Fats Waller song, Jitterbug Waltz, followed in a similar vein by solos from Igor Butman on tenor sax and Paul Bollenback on guitar. The most unusual track is Song for Marta; it has an Eastern European feel, and was originally composed when McNulty was a teenager.  She recorded the vocal outdoors in Pennsylvania, on a glorious spring day – the birdsong and thunder are genuine.  An exquisite piano accompaniment by Graham Wood was added later.  The sessions for this album were recorded in just one day, and as a result, it has succeeded in conveying the feel of a live performance by this accomplished singer, with a distinctive jazz voice.

Debra Milne.