Faye Carol

The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol

Carol-Gamble-Lopes

Faye Carol, vocals; Kito Gamble, piano; Dewayne Oakley, bass; Babatunde, drums; Joshi Marshall, tenor; Carolyn Brandy, percussion; James Gamble, musical supervision

Unabashed Jazz. No holds barred. No concessions made, no prettifying for the sake of sales. Superb! Singers generally require a 'nice' voice. Faye Carol has a different voice. Her voice is the voice of Jazz. She has the stamp of a Betty Carter (and has a somewhat similar approach), with a little Dee Dee thrown in. She interprets, bends notes, extends and grooves on what's happening, second for second. With every breath she seems to be stating "I don't give a hoot about all that corny stuff, I'm a Jazz singer. You dig?" She must be able to comp with any bunch of musicians who can hit a groove. And groove they do. Do they ever get off on "Midnight Sun" - this is the way it was meant to be. The rhythm section lays it all down without compromise and Miss Carol vamps with Marshall on tenor. Maybe the lady overdoes it a bit on occasion, but you don't care. This all too solid, there's so much happening. The piano sometime sounds like it's light years out of tune. But that's OK, too. This is the answer to all that smooth stuff they have been giving us of late, and this CD is not always pretty. But this is a CD for people who can't live without Jazz.

by Lawrence Brazier

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