Suzanna Smith: Halfway Between Heaven & Love

Oakland-based vocalist Suzanna Smith states that she is, ..." always looking for ways to play within the boundaries of a song's 'container,...' I think of songs as rooms and the longer you live in them, the more you can move about without bumping into things. I love when I reach that point with a song." She illustrates this aurally in her carefully considered standards like Legrand and Bergman's "Summer Me, Winter Me," King, Young, and Van Alstyne's "Beautiful Love," and Schwartz and Dietz's "Alone Together."

Solidly empathic with her core trio of pianist Michael Coleman, bassist Brandon Essex durmer Hamir Atwal, Smith adopts an organic delivery lying midway between Tierney Sutton and Jacqui Sutton, that same place where mentor Laurie Antonioli lives, particularly on her recent American Dreams (Intrinsic Music, 2010). Smith emerges from this same rich vocal soil.

Smith joins Dorian Devins ( The Procrastinator (Self Produced, 2013)) as a new generation of lyricists penning words to jazz standards. Smith opens Halfway Between Heaven & Love with a mash-up of Tadd Dameron's "Ladybird" with Miles Davis' "Half Nelson," while closing with a warm and breezy interpretation of Dexter Gordon's "Soy Califa," replete with tenor saxophone accompaniment by Michael O'Neill, spinning LTD lines in the sand.

Smith, with Coleman, prove the composing juggernaut, producing music with a slight sepia tone ("Comet") and a winsome sense of humor ("Monk's Make Belief"). The original compositions meld well stylistically with the well-chosen standards and the original adaptations. Halfway Between Heaven & Love is a strong debut by an artist who is more than ready to come forward and be recognised.