Welsman

"Inclined" is a lovely selection of the musical styles that Carol Welsman plays with great ease and flare. Her refreshing interpretations breathe new life into songs you have heard many times before like "One Note Samba". She sings it in its original portuguese. Another gem on this album is Carol's jazzed version of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Catch the authentic samba feel on "Fais Comme L'Oiseau". Carol shows off her song-writing abilites with "Inclined", "Wings to Fly" and "New Day". This CD flows beautifully from beginning to end.

Rainy Day Moments is a single-disc collection of songs from Savoy Jazz's relaunching of the Jazz for a Rainy Day series that 32 Jazz made extremely popular in the late '90s. The tracks are taken from the large catalog of the defunct Muse label and feature '70s, '80s, and '90s recordings by many well-respected jazz legends and some up-and-coming youngsters, too. This disc gives a good feel for the makeup of the discs in the series. It is a blend of giants like Grant Green, whose "Iron City" is the disc's highlight; Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Sonny Stitt; and lesser lights like Johnny Lytle, Pat Martino, and Carol Welsman. The music is relaxed throughout and the mood is unsparingly mellow. Although the songs date from well-beyond jazz's peak years, the performances are uniformly solid and the disc is a nice collection of mood music.