Rachel Caswell (vocals); Sara Caswell (violin tracks 1,3,5); Dave Stryker (guitar, arrangements); Fabian Almazan (piano, Fender Rhodes); Linda May Han Oh (bass); Johnathan Blake (drums).
(Review by Ann Alex)
Rachel Caswell comes from a musical Indiana family. At 13, she had begun to play jazz piano and cello, and, encouraged by a family friend, to sing scat and bebop. In 2015, she gave up her day job to concentrate on music, and this is her second album. We’re All In The Dance consists of re-imagined standards plus Sting’s Fragile. This is a very enjoyable CD which includes stellar instrumental playing with lots of solos.
The vocals are pleasing, though I would have liked a bit less scatting, but perhaps that is my preference rather than an objective opinion. I’m not a great one for scat unless it is exceptionally good and comes across as an integral part of the song.
The songs are: Fragile; A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening; We’re All In The Dance; Devil May Care; Two For The Road; Drown In My Own Tears; I Didn’t Know What Time It Was; Tell Me A Bedtime Story; Dexterity: Reflections (Looking Back)
Fragile has a very suitable, haunting violin solo and sung wordplay to round off the piece, which works better than scat; A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening is a romantic swinger; Devil May Care is one of the best tracks, sung freely at first, lots of effective cymbal work from the drums, and a bass solo with just odd notes from the other instruments; Drown In My Own Tears is slow and bluesy; I Didn’t Know What Time It Was literally plays with the timing, with clever phrasing by the pianist; Tell Me A Bedtime Story gives us a suitably smooth, warm, Fender Rhodes solo; Dexterity shows our singer thoroughly at home with beboppy scat; Hendricks/Monk’s Reflections is quietly bittersweet.
The CD was released on September 7 by Turtle Ridge Records (TRR-003).
Ann Alex
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