The George Masso Sextet C’est Magnifique

Patricia Barber is absolutely one of a kind. There are any number of jazz vocalists who have good voices, pitch, time, and piano chops; there are others who also sing as if they were looking straight into your eyes. But there is no one who is so consistently iconoclastic, and so deliberately intellectual. Ever since her first CD in 1989, abstract headiness has defined Barber's compositions and delivery; it was the core of her Mythologies release (Blue Note, 2003), a song cycle based on Ovid's "Metamorphoses." Since that project was commissioned by the Guggenheim Foundation, it was necessarily lofty in intent.

With 2020’s Sunset in the Blue singer Melody Gardot sinks into a dusky and languorously produced album that builds upon her love of jazz standards, Brazilian music, and intimate balladry. The record finds Gardot surrounded by a production dream team, including longtime associate Larry Klein, who helmed 2009’s My One and Only Thrill and 2015’s Currency of Man, as well as equally acclaimed studio pros, arranger Vince Mendoza and engineer Al Schmitt. Together, they have crafted a showcase for Gardot’s delicately nuanced vocal style. The album is an interesting dichotomy, at once intimate as if Gardot is singing to you in a small club, yet also widescreen, framing her hushed vocals in sweeping orchestrations that reinforce the romantic drama at play in the songs.