Vicki Burns: Lotus Blossom Days

Whatever else can be said about jazz, there is little disagreement that it is best experienced in a live setting. Listening to Vicki Burns' Lotus Blossom Days is as close to a front-row seat in a New York nightclub as many of us are likely to get in these times of high fuel costs and crowded airports.

Burns is not attempting to blow the roof off with vocal gyrations and tricks. She never oversings as she tries to figure out what a song actually needs from her as a singer. Like a master chef, Burns figures out what she needs to add to make the music delectable to the ear without overdoing it with unnecessary additives.

Burns has a pretty kick-ass band backing her up, with the trio of pianist Art Hirahara, bassist and arranger Sam Bevan, and drummer Billy Drummond augmented by a horn section of saxophonist Dayna Stephens, trumpeter Josh Deutsch , Mas Koga on flute or saxophone, and trombonist Nick Vayenas . At times, horns can vie for dominance in the band's sound, but here they add to instead of subtracting from the vocalist and the core band.

This is not a live album, but the swinging energy of "If You Never Fall In Love With Me/Del Sasser" has a live "feel" to it. Burns switches up the mood with the crooner "Close Your Eyes" in which Deutch's tasteful trumpet solo cooks away with the rhythm section. Burns is a skilled interpreter of songs, and chooses material such as "Lotus Blossom Days," a Billy Strayhorn ballad co-written with Roger Schore and Carol Sloane, in which she is accompanied by Hirahara's piano. It is a moment that leaves one waiting for the sound of the audience's applause at the song's end. Burns' own "Siren Song" is an old-fashioned torch song featuring Bevan's bass and Drummond's drums quietly firing on all cylinders.

At twelve tracks over fifty-four-minutes, the energy wanes in spots; a song or two could probably have been cut to make the record a bit tighter, but that is a minor quibble. Burns clearly put her heart and soul into Lotus Blossom Days, and the proof is that one can almost see the smile of satisfaction in the recording, but go ahead and listen to it and come to the same conclusion. This is the jazz nightclub experience without the cover charge, but some may want to pour a glass of fine bourbon and enjoy it along with the music and the mood which Burns successfully recreates.

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