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Dena DeRose: A Walk in the Park
by C. Michael Bailey
Dena DeRose belongs to that select group of jazz artists known by the dual moniker of pianist/vocalist. Her peers include Patricia Barber, Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Patti Wicks, Shirley Horn, and Christine Hitt. Of this group, DeRose has the most muscular and assertive style. Her assertive piano playing perfectly balances her beautifully feminine voice. DeRose's new recording, A Walk in the Park, is her strongest offering yet.
Perfoming in the comfortable piano trio format, DeRose proves quite at ...
Continue ReadingDena DeRose: Love's Holiday
by C. Michael Bailey
An embarrassment of vocal riches'
Jazz enthusiasts have been blessed in the last couple of years with the emergence of a plethora of female jazz vocal talent. Diana Krall, Tierney Sutton, Cassandra Wilson, Holly Cole, Patricia Barber, and Karrin Allyson are all part of the new wave of jazz divas. Add to them, Dena DeRose, who has had three previous recordings on Sharp Nine records, all well received ( Introducing Dena DeRose, Another World , and I Can See Clearly ...
Continue ReadingDena DeRose: I Can See Clearly Now
by David Adler
Dena DeRose’s third CD for Sharp Nine boasts some uncommonly clever arrangements. The biggest surprise is “Detour Ahead," which gets a double-time treatment. Dwayne Burno plays electric bass, Matt Wilson funks it up with a syncopated snare drum rhythm, and Joe Locke weighs in with an adroit vibes solo. On the second A section, when DeRose sings the lyrics “Wake up, slow down," the band does just that — it slows down, as if someone flipped the switch from 45 ...
Continue ReadingDena DeRose: I Can See Clearly Now
by C. Andrew Hovan
Without any doubt, pianist/vocalist Dena DeRose has come up with another winner and possibly her finest album yet to date. That’s saying a lot too because her previous two sessions for Sharp Nine, Introducing Dena DeRose and Another World, have been critically lauded while also setting a new standard among the female jazzer cum hip vocalist crowd. Even if DeRose had never discovered her vocal talents, her skills as a pianist would have led to a successful career as a ...
Continue ReadingDena DeRose: I Can See Clearly Now
by David A. Orthmann
The marriage of the American Popular Songbook and the jazz tradition of improvisation and innovation continue to bear exquisite fruit on singer/pianist Dena DeRose’s third recording for the Sharp Nine imprint. DeRose uses the basic structure of the songs as a point of departure in fashioning treatments that retain the spirit of the material while taking decidedly individualistic turns. From ballads to up-tempo swingers, she forsakes vocal pyrotechnics in favor of telling a story, usually one with some delightful idiosyncrasies. ...
Continue ReadingDena DeRose: Another World
by Jack Bowers
In his liner notes to Another World, singer/pianist Dena DeRose’s second Sharp Nine release, Bruce Crowther affirms that DeRose is a superb Jazz pianist. Not much cause for argument there. He goes on to say she’s a superb Jazz singer too. Well . . . I haven’t heard many of those lately, and good as she is, DeRose comes up a pinch short of “supreme excellence or beauty.” Her main drawback — and this may sound strange — seems to ...
Continue ReadingDena DeRose: Another World
by Joel Roberts
The story goes that Dena DeRose took up singing when a hand injury kept her from playing the piano for two years. Today she probably looks on that injury as a blessing, since she has developed into one of the hottest young singer-pianists in jazz.
Like the best jazz singers, from Anita O'Day to Betty Carter to Cassandra Wilson, DeRose is not just a voice on top of a band -- she's a fully integrated member of the ensemble; a ...
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