Album review: Thana Alexa - ONA

This bold, powerful and compelling album slipped beneath the critics’ radar on its release a year ago but may be ripe for rediscovery since garnering two Grammy nominations this month. Self-released in March 2020, ONA has been nominated for Best Jazz Vocal Album and for Best Improvised Jazz Solo, for Regina Carter’s two and a half minute violin solo, a melancholy, swirling dance for the lost, the fallen and the forgotten on the third track here, Pachamama.

Alexa has Croatian and American roots and was brought up in both countries. The album was inspired by the 2017 Women’s March on Washington and the stories of immigrant women in her own family. Her website states that “The album speaks to us musically about every facet of womanhood, conveying a message of strength and empowerment”, and I wouldn’t dispute that. This her second album after Ode to Heroes which was released in 2015

The album starts with ONA, the only track which has the lyrics provided; ‘ona’ means ‘she’ in Croatian. The Rosa Vocal Group sing a round in Croatian and from that rises a statement of feminist intent, “We must be better than/Just to be equal to/Even when we succeed/ We don’t get paid like you/Stop all your staring boy/ Your disrespectful noise/You’re wrong if you think I was born to be your toy/I am Woman/I am free/ I will decide what happens with my body….” delivered over rumbling bass and drums, like an advancing storm.

The album mixes modern vocalese with scat singing and, at times, blends voice and instrumentation in such a way that one rises seamlessly from the other, such as the interplay between Jordan Peters’ guitar and Alexa’s Bjork-ish declamatory vocals on Animal Instinct and again on the closer, a cover of Tears for Fear, Everybody Wants to Rule the World. 

At other times the music is stripped back to the rhythm section alone. Staaf plays some lovely Bill Evans-ish piano on Set Free, and You Taught Me starts as a delicate acoustic guitar ballad before unleashing its full-on power. Teardrop is a cover of a Massive Attack track from that band’s Mezzanine album that builds to a thunderous prog guitar climax while He Said She Said frames an argument with a modern, percussive piano trio backing before laying back into something more wistful in a duet with Becca Stevens that also brings in a simpler backing including a ukulele.

This a vehement and passionate album from a committed singer with an agenda; the music, the lyrics and the vocal performance all work together to support that. This is a tremendous piece of work.

‘ONA’ by Thana Alexa is available through the usual streaming services or on CD from here. 

Dave Sayer

Tracks: ONA; The Resistance; Pachamama; Set Free; You Taught Me; Teardrop; Cassandra; He Said She Said; Animal Instinct; Everybody Wants To Rule The World

Musicians: Thana Alexa (voice/compositions/arrangements/keys); Carmen Staaf (piano/Fender Rhodes/keys); Matt Brewer (acoustic and electric bass); Antonio Sanchez (drums;/perc/keys) plus the Rosa Vocal Group (track 1); Staceyann Chinn (spoken word track 2); Regina Carter (violin track 3); Becca Stevens (vocals/ukulele/charango/track 8).