Jazz Articles about Sylvia Brooks

About Sylvia Brooks

Album Review

Jazz vocalist and songwriter Sylvia Brooks embarks on an ambitious lyrical odyssey on her sixth recording, Soliloquy, released on SBM Records. As a classically trained mezzo-soprano with a three-octave range, Brooks utilizes an expressive and agile instrument to illuminate the challenges, heartbreaks, and wonders of life. The album is framed as a work of Lyric Jazz comprising four standards and four originals co-written with pianist and arranger Christian Jacob, backed by a talented band. The project brings together strong artistic ...

Album Review

Sylvia Brooks: The Arrangement

Read "The Arrangement" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
June 11, 2017

Vocalist Sylvia Brooks likes to provide her music a noir patina, that smoky and dark evening tone preferred by the likes of the fictional hard men: Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, and Jeff Markham. On her third recording, The Arrangement, this patina is given a high buff shine into something more contemporary, without losing any of the inherent sexiness of the music and its delivery. The Arrangement is a delicious double entendre on the word “arrangement," juxtaposing the darker side of ...

Album Review

Sylvia Brooks: Restless

by Jim Olin
September 3, 2012

Part the curtains and turn on the Klieg lights for singer Sylvia Brooks, whose second album, Restless, has the widescreen scope and orchestral sweep of a theatrical production. In fact, the record has the overall feel of a soundtrack for a film yet to be made. However, the kind of Hollywood movie this music recalls is certainly not of modern origin; rather, Brooks is paying homage to the film noir classics of the '40s and '50s. In terms of her ...

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Take Five With...

Take Five With Sylvia Brooks

by AAJ Staff
October 18, 2009

The content of this article has been updated since its 2009 publish date. Meet Sylvia Brooks: Since the release of her captivating debut, 2009's Dangerous Liaisons, jazz vocalist Sylvia Brooks has displayed a gift for inhabiting different personas, with a subspecialty in film-noir inspired femmes fatale. On her fourth album, Signature, she embraces the most challenging role of all, defining herself with a set of beautifully crafted original songs. Her evocative lyrics and emotionally direct delivery imbue the ...