Moon Man

One of the most talented female performers in modern jazz, the versatile pianist Rachel Z has happy ants in her pants, doing everything in her career from bebop to pure jazz-pop and now this colorful tribute to the songwriting artistry of Joni Mitchell. Bassist Patricia Des Lauriers and drummer Bobbie Rae complement her lively, artful, and mostly percussive interpretations of such familiar classics as "Big Yellow Taxi" and more obscure but no less melodic and infectious gems like "Carey." There's a smooth, poppy sheen to those tracks, but the pianist goes a little more experimental on "Ladies Man," mixing hardcore swinging with slower, swaying passages – challenging the girls to keep up.

Kenny Neal is such a terrific singer that he can make any kind of blues sound good. On Hoodoo Moon, Neal does the Delta blues justice on a version of Elmore James's "It Hurts Me Too," and does a fine job on the Chicago blues with "I'm a Blues Man." He even pulls off some James Brown funk on "Just One Step." Nonetheless, Neal makes his most valuable contributions when he allows his Louisiana roots to show. On "Don't Fix Our Love," for example, Neal lays his blues-harmonica solo and gravelly vocal over a New Orleans second-line parade rhythm. Lucky Peterson plays the Professor Longhair-like piano part expertly and does the same with the Fats Domino-like piano triplets on "Why Should I Stay." "The Real Thing" and the album's title track boast the slippery shuffle beat of upstate Louisiana's swamp blues.