Teagan Taylor: Hello

Teagan Taylor, San Diego's very talented up-and-coming vocalist/trumpeter/cornetist, has roots running deep in jazz. Her first album, I Can't Complain (Jazzomaniac Record, 2011) featured knock-out versions of the familiar standards, "Takin' A Chance On Love, "Bye Bye Blackbird, and Gershwin's "But Not For Me," and "Summertime." On the sophomore outing, Wonderland (Jazzomaniac Records, 2012), Taylor spread her songwriting wings, contributing eight very engaging original tunes—penned with her father, Tim Taylor, the trio's guitarist—augmented by a couple of time-tested Great American Songbook Standards.

The twenty-one year old Taylor's talent soars with Hello. She wrote or co-wrote all but one of the disc's twelve songs, featuring and eclectic range of styles, opening with "I Dig You," riding the rhythm of Tim Taylor's lilting reggae guitar and Dylan Taylor's (Teagan's twin brother) deep bass groove, sweetened by Ed Kornhauser's tasty organ.

"One" slips in on a bright, danceable Latin rhythm, punctuated by some snappy guitar licks. "Out of Thin Air," a wistful R & B ballad, glides on an organ breeze, with a brief, succinct guitar turn that tells a sad story. "Him and Her" finds Taylor's vocal's fronting a spare backing of rhythm guitar alongside Meir Shitrit's ukelele, giving the tune a Hawaiian vibe, and "Take a Look At Yourself" explores a Delta/Chicago Blues mood out of the Muddy Waters/Little Walter/Jimmy Reed school, and includes one of Taylor's laid-back, laconic—but perfect—trumpet solos, singing around a plunger mute. "Fantasy Land" mixes the moods of New Orleans with the swing of gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt.

This is a superbly produced disc, one that features a special polish—via the addition of co-producer Dave Blackburn's keyboards—on the gorgeous title tune, and on song with a message, "Wishful Thinking."

Teagan and the Taylors close the show with a free wheeling jazz romp, "So Long, Pops" written by Tim Taylor for his father, Eugene "Gino" Taylor. Dylan Taylor's bass lays down a rock solid rhythm alongside the drum work of Duke Ventura; Tim Taylor's guitar snaps and pops; Ed Kornhauser's keyboards sparkle; and the horns—Teagan on trumpet, Dave Burnett on tenor sax—trade heart-felt solos, and then it's Tim's turn, with a bluesy guitar turn.

Hello is a marveolous recording, a breakout disc.