Virginia MacDonald: In Search Of...

Perhaps one reason that Virginia MacDonald is so hard to track down is that she is a woman who plays jazz clarinet. Do you know of any others? Here are at least two, both of whom are alive and active: New Orleans' Doreen Ketchens and Israeli-American Anat Cohen. Excellent players but several long strides from becoming household names.

MacDonald, who is from Toronto, Canada, has earned that country's JUNO Award (the Canadian version of the Grammys) and won the International Clarinetist Corona Competition, among whose judges was the aforementioned Cohen. On In Search Of..., she leads a first-rate quartet whose other members are pianist Geoffrey Keezer, bassist Ira Coleman and drummer Curtis Nowosad, with Laura Anglade adding wordless vocals on two numbers.

MacDonald composed half a dozen of the album's themes, complementing Charles Mingus' dreamlike "Duke Ellington's Sound of Love" and the one standard every clarinest is implicitly required to take at least one shot at, Hoagy Carmichael's timeless "Stardust." MacDonald's strong voice leads the way on all of them, while Keezer, Coleman and Nowosad provide the rhythmic counterpoint.

To accentuate the positive, MacDonald is technically flawless, a skill that does not, however, always work in her favor, as on the fleet-footed opening number, "Last Call at Dimitri's," wherein she seems at times to simply be running the scales (even though she is not)—a practice she repeats to a lesser extent on the up-tempo "Retrogression." Elsewhere, the clarinet is more restrained, and you can readily hear and appreciate why MacDonald is so highly regarded by her peers. Keezer is a bright and able soloist who is always a pleasure to hear, while Coleman and Nowosad tend to their assignments without undue fuss.

In Search Of... is a solid session that opens a window into the many talents of MacDonald, who represents a rare breed, that of female jazz clarinetist. Not a classic, but worth one's time and consideration.