Dana Lauren: It's You or No One (2011)

C. MICHAEL BAILEY,

C. Michael Bailey

Senior Contributor since 1997

...wants to know if Gene Harris is playing "Summertime" in Heaven...

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Published: January 10, 2011

Track review of "On The Sunny Side of the Street"

Vocalist Dana Lauren has a beautifully balanced alto voice that is pliant and malleable, one well suited for jazz. It's You or No One (Self Produced, 2010) was the singer's well-received debut, a smart collection of standards rendered well by top-notch musicians. Lauren sings inside and outside the box, straight-ahead and sideways with equal intensity and sensitivity. She is also effective in small spaces.

In a minimalist trend that echoes Lawrence Lebo's "less-is-more" approach, Lauren retires her band, bringing in bassist Christian McBride for a duet on the 1930 McHugh/Fields show tune, "On the Sunny Side of the Street." After opening with a tempo-perfect introductory bass vamp, McBride and Lauren both chase the beat—sometimes ahead, sometimes behind, but always swinging. Lauren is confidently playful and coquettish in her phrasing, obviously having fun with this old tune. McBride takes a solo jaunt, proving that all that's needed for a band may be a bass, returning for the duet coda.

"Gold dust at my feet," indeed.

Personnel: Dana Lauren: vocals; Christian McBride: bass.

Record Label: Self Produced
Style: Vocal