Live at Jazz Standard

Every tune a classic, every player a master, every tune sounding new, every player keeping the spirit of Charles Mingus alive and swinging! –Michael Bourne, WBGO

Devotees of superior jazz vocalists have several reasons to rejoice about this fourth CD by the highly respected San Francisco-based Paula West. First and foremost, the recording is simply a true knockout; but the rejoicing is also because, despite rave audiences and reviews for over a decade, this is West's first release since the impressively executed Come What May (High Horse) in 2001. Recorded during an engagement at New York City's Jazz Standard in 2011, it features stellar but recently departed pianist/arranger George Mesterhazy's quartet (including guitarist Ed Cherry), the excellent band with which she has long collaborated. Those hearing West for the first time will be struck initially by her unusually strong and rich vocal instrument, with breath control, purity of tone and pitch to die for…

This is the kind of series that could last forever pianist Dena DeRose seems to have an endless supply of well- and little-known tunes from the collected songbooks and both the music and performances are timeless. The second set from the same evening that produced Volume One (MAXJAZZ, 2007), this has the same in-the-moment sense of place and, what sounds like a contradiction in terms, a recorded spontaneity.

Dena DeRose continues to dazzle in the simplest ways—she's a gifted and accomplished pianist, vocalist, composer and arranger but there's not a speck of self-importance or pretension as she joyously makes her way through new and old tunes. Her voice has the timbre and range of an Anita O'Day but there's a fresh, clear-headed quality here that speaks of self-confidence. Bassist Martin Wind and drummer Matt Wilson play in the trio of pianist Bill Mays, and bring that same level of sterling artistry to this date.