Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Sara Lazarus with Bireli Lagrene's Gipsy Project: It's A...

396

Sara Lazarus with Bireli Lagrene's Gipsy Project: It's All Right With Me

By

View read count
Sara Lazarus with Bireli Lagrene's Gipsy Project: It's All Right With Me
Sara Lazarus is in no hurry. After the Delaware-born French emigré won first prize at the 1994 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, she waited over a decade to record her debut, 2005's Give Me the Simple Life. To the benefit of jazz listeners, she didn't wait long to record a followup: It's All Right With Me finds the singer once again taking her time and making every word count, as if to imbue each syllable with the deepest possible meaning. The result is a fresh take on classic songs that avoids overindulgent flashiness.

Like her debut, which covered the well-worn theme of love, It's All Right With Me recalls the Frank Sinatra concept albums of yesteryear. Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim (Warner Brothers, 1967) comes to mind, but instead of bossa nova, Lazarus has opted for gypsy-influenced jazz, finding ideal support in Bireli Lagrène's Gipsy Project.

Lagrène's group owes an inescapable debt to Django Reinhardt, but his mastery of Reinhardt's buoyant sound is crucial to the album's success. Lagrène, who joined Lazarus for three cuts on Give Me the Simple Life, is an impressive virtuoso guitarist who liberally embellishes his solos with arpeggiated lines, flourishes and fast runs. His chops-oriented methodology is the perfect counterpoint to Lazarus' simpler melodic approach.

This does not mean that a technical weakness accounts for Lazarus' straightforward style. "Down With Love" demonstrates that she can deliver an emotionally rich performance at a fast tempo without succumbing to superfluous scat-singing. Likewise, Lagrène's contributions are not merely decorative; for example, his solo on "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" is typically ornate, but also suffused with much feeling.

The inclusion of a French ballad ("Dans Mon Ile"), along with exquisite string arrangements on three tracks, add elegance and variety to an already lovely album. At her own pace, Sara Lazarus has embarked on an impressive recording career; if she has more albums in her like It's All Right With Me, she can take all the time she needs.

Track Listing

Gypsy in My Soul; Taking a Chance On Love; What a Little Moonlight Can Do; Embraceable You; It's All Right With Me; Dans Mon Ile; Deed I Do; Down With Love; Jim; The Way You Look Tonight; In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning; Cheek to Cheek.

Personnel

Sara Lazarus: vocals; Bireli Lagr

Album information

Title: It's All Right With Me | Year Released: 2007 | Record Label: Dreyfus Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.