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Dena DeRose: United

By C. Andrew Hovan

Loathe as one might be to admit it, there are far too many singers today who consider themselves jazz vocalists. The fact of the matter is it is far too easy to scat a few lines, come up with some nouveau riche lyrics, and press your album at 45 rpm than to really function as a vital musician that also happens to vocalize. Herein rests the problem, often abetted by the hype that only the media can do far too ...

Dena DeRose: Live at Jazz Standard Volume Two

By Donald Elfman

This is the kind of series that could last forever--pianist Dena DeRose seems to have an endless supply of well- and little-known tunes from the collected songbooks and both the music and performances are timeless. The second set from the same evening that produced Volume One (MAXJAZZ, 2007), this has the same in-the-moment sense of place and, what sounds like a contradiction in terms, a recorded spontaneity. This trio--with DeRose's ever so natural yet seasoned singing and ...

Dena DeRose: Live at The Jazz Standard, Volume One

By Donald Elfman

Dena DeRose continues to dazzle in the simplest ways--she's a gifted and accomplished pianist, vocalist, composer and arranger but there's not a speck of self-importance or pretension as she joyously makes her way through new and old tunes. Her voice has the timbre and range of an Anita O'Day but there's a fresh, clear-headed quality here that speaks of self-confidence. Bassist Martin Wind and drummer Matt Wilson play in the trio of pianist Bill Mays, and bring that same level ...

Dena DeRose: Live at The Jazz Standard, Volume One

By C. Michael Bailey

Pianist/vocalist Dena DeRose debuted on MaxJazz in 2005 with her well received A Walk in the Park. Now the label has put her into an appropriate live setting in New York City's Jazz Standard with bassist Martin Wind, uber-drummer Matt Wilson (both on A Walk in the Park), and NYC mainstay saxophonist Joel Frahm blowing through for one selection.

Dena DeRose is the member of a Jazz Senate comprised of musicians who are both pianists and vocalists. This ...

Dena DeRose: A Walk in the Park

By Jim Santella

Dena DeRose sings with emotion and musical accuracy. Her trio's sense of swing makes A Walk in the Park sparkle with hip inclinations that revel in their rhythmic delivery. While the album is moody for the most part, there's a deep feeling attached to this session. DeRose sings from the heart.

Breathy and hesitant, her vocal delivery takes hold of a slower ballad and allows it to linger. In several places this quality becomes tiresome. The singer/pianist is ...

Dena DeRose: A Walk in the Park

By C. Michael Bailey

Dena DeRose belongs to that select group of jazz artists known by the dual moniker of pianist/vocalist. Her peers include Patricia Barber, Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Patti Wicks, Shirley Horn, and Christine Hitt. Of this group, DeRose has the most muscular and assertive style. Her assertive piano playing perfectly balances her beautifully feminine voice. DeRose's new recording, A Walk in the Park, is her strongest offering yet.

Perfoming in the comfortable piano trio format, DeRose proves quite at ...

Dena DeRose: Love's Holiday

By C. Michael Bailey

An embarrassment of vocal riches'

Jazz enthusiasts have been blessed in the last couple of years with the emergence of a plethora of female jazz vocal talent. Diana Krall, Tierney Sutton, Cassandra Wilson, Holly Cole, Patricia Barber, and Karrin Allyson are all part of the new wave of jazz divas. Add to them, Dena DeRose, who has had three previous recordings on Sharp Nine records, all well received ( Introducing Dena DeRose, Another World , and I Can See Clearly ...

Dena DeRose: I Can See Clearly Now

By David Adler

Dena DeRose’s third CD for Sharp Nine boasts some uncommonly clever arrangements. The biggest surprise is “Detour Ahead," which gets a double-time treatment. Dwayne Burno plays electric bass, Matt Wilson funks it up with a syncopated snare drum rhythm, and Joe Locke weighs in with an adroit vibes solo. On the second A section, when DeRose sings the lyrics “Wake up, slow down," the band does just that — it slows down, as if someone flipped the switch from 45 ...

Dena DeRose: I Can See Clearly Now

By C. Andrew Hovan

Without any doubt, pianist/vocalist Dena DeRose has come up with another winner and possibly her finest album yet to date. That’s saying a lot too because her previous two sessions for Sharp Nine, Introducing Dena DeRose and Another World, have been critically lauded while also setting a new standard among the female jazzer cum hip vocalist crowd. Even if DeRose had never discovered her vocal talents, her skills as a pianist would have led to a successful career as a ...

Dena DeRose: I Can See Clearly Now

By David A. Orthmann

The marriage of the American Popular Songbook and the jazz tradition of improvisation and innovation continue to bear exquisite fruit on singer/pianist Dena DeRose’s third recording for the Sharp Nine imprint. DeRose uses the basic structure of the songs as a point of departure in fashioning treatments that retain the spirit of the material while taking decidedly individualistic turns. From ballads to up-tempo swingers, she forsakes vocal pyrotechnics in favor of telling a story, usually one with some delightful idiosyncrasies. ...

Dena DeRose: Another World

By Jack Bowers

In his liner notes to Another World, singer/pianist Dena DeRose’s second Sharp Nine release, Bruce Crowther affirms that DeRose is a superb Jazz pianist. Not much cause for argument there. He goes on to say she’s a superb Jazz singer too. Well . . . I haven’t heard many of those lately, and good as she is, DeRose comes up a pinch short of “supreme excellence or beauty.” Her main drawback — and this may sound strange — seems to ...

Dena DeRose: Another World

By Joel Roberts

The story goes that Dena DeRose took up singing when a hand injury kept her from playing the piano for two years. Today she probably looks on that injury as a blessing, since she has developed into one of the hottest young singer-pianists in jazz.

Like the best jazz singers, from Anita O'Day to Betty Carter to Cassandra Wilson, DeRose is not just a voice on top of a band -- she's a fully integrated member of the ensemble; a ...