Jazz Articles about Melissa Walker

Melissa Walker: In The Middle Of It All

by Raul d'Gama Rose
August 29, 2009

If there was something similar to “method acting" in music and it were not so passé a word, then it would be tempting to suggest that Melissa Walker's In The Middle Of It All is such a master class. As it happens, the record is a lot more than that, hinting at griot traditions and as exemplary a work in the contemporary troubadour tradition as anything put out today. It is cause for celebration that Walker, an enigmatic vocalist--because of ...

Melissa Walker: I Saw the Sky

by Dave Nathan
October 1, 2001

Canadian born Melissa Walker decided to break off law studies to become a barrister at the court of song, and wasn't that a bit of luck for us. On this her third Enja release, Walker proves conclusively that great standards need never when in the hands of an imaginative stylist able to restore their magic and glitter. Walker uses a variety of vocal modes and instrumental backup to deliver a set of special interpretations. A string quarter opens “Some Other ...

Melissa Walker: Moment of Truth

by Robert Spencer
December 1, 1999

Melissa Walker has a smoky, soulful voice. She is no screamer or wailer, but has just as much of an emotional impact as any of they do by skillful choices of rhythm and emphasis. She can even invest slight material like Janis Ian's mawkish “Seventeen" with a certain sincerity and poise. And on an offbeat number like Abdullah Ibrahim's mournful ballad “For John [Coltrane]," her delivery is languid and yet full of tremulous emotion.

Her backup band here is first-rate: ...