Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Dena DeRose: A Walk in the Park

123

Dena DeRose: A Walk in the Park

By

View read count
Dena DeRose: A Walk in the Park
Dena DeRose sings with emotion and musical accuracy. Her trio's sense of swing makes A Walk in the Park sparkle with hip inclinations that revel in their rhythmic delivery. While the album is moody for the most part, there's a deep feeling attached to this session. DeRose sings from the heart.

Breathy and hesitant, her vocal delivery takes hold of a slower ballad and allows it to linger. In several places this quality becomes tiresome. The singer/pianist is much better when she's animated, which fortunately is true of most of the session.

Wordless vocal interludes in unison with her up-tempo piano forays recall the magic formula that Tania Maria has developed into a science. With these exciting passages, DeRose moves animatedly to the beat of her trio's heart while appearing spontaneous.

"Imagine" provides a loping scene where the singer has an opportunity to build her interpretation from cool and distant to something more passionate. She prefers, however, to leave it that way. Cole Porter would call it blasé. She adds Moog synthesizer on the trio's portrayal of "I Concentrate on You," which starts out split between the left and right channels. As the sounds come together, her Moog effects color the scene with a light contemporary air. The result is unique, but remains cool and distant.

Her composition "A Walk in the Park" provides a lovely musical stroll that emphasizes the trio's swinging appearance. Serving as the album's high point, this instrumental number bounces gracefully with fresh keyboard attacks that drive spontaneously. DeRose and her two musical partners give her audience an effective dose of straight-ahead jazz talk, done up with respect for tradition.

Track Listing

1. Meditation; 2. All My Love; 3. How Deep Is The Ocean; 4. Home (With You); 5. All The Way; 6. The Lonely Ones; 7. In The Glow Of The Moon; 8. Imagine; 9. A Walk In The Park (With James); 10. I Could've Told You; 11. I Concentrate On You.

Personnel

Dena DeRose
piano and vocals

Dena DeRose--Vocals, Piano; Martin Wind--Bass; Matt Wilson--Drums.

Album information

Title: A Walk in the Park | Year Released: 2005 | Record Label: MAXJAZZ

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.