CD Review: Nancy Goudinaki - I Wanna Be Your Star

Nancy Goudinaki (vocals, electro-classical guitar); Orrin Evans (piano, arrangements); Dwayne Burno (bass); J D Allen (tenor sax); Rudy Royston (drums); also guests Miles Griffith (vocals); Daniel Sadownick (percussion); Richie Goods (bass).

(Review by Ann Alex).

 Ms Goudinaki hails from Greece and this is her debut album.  She was trained in classical guitar but she felt inspired to sing jazz, and she is making a name for herself in and around New York.  The CD includes standards, Almost Like Being In Love; I’ll Be Seeing You; Fine And Mellow; My Heart Stood Still; A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square; Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea;, two originals by Ms Goudini Bird Of Paradise; I Wanna Be Your Star; and another two tracks Just Friends and an instrumental Milonga.

I enjoyed listening except for the track Just Friends, which features the male vocalist Miles Griffith along with Ms Goudinaki, which was far too dramatically performed for my taste.  The other tracks were delightfully sung, and Ms Goudinaki’s occasional foreign accent adds to the charm.  Her voice can be wonderfully sweet, as in Bird Of Paradise, or more sultry toned as in most of the standards.  For instance Almost Like Being In Love has a lower toned voice with a jazzy feel and just the right amount of scat towards the end of the song.  The piano and sax solo well and the drums and bass do their stuff throughout the album.  I’ll Be Seeing You begins with a suitably mournful sax and is the slowest version of the song I've yet to hear, but it is wisely kept short.  Fine And Mellow opens with just voice and bass, then the other instruments enter sleazily as befits the song.

I think we’ll hear more of this singer in the future.  The CD is self released on April 16.

Ann Alex