Artist: Lindsey Webster
Album: Back To Your Heart
Label: Shanachie Entertainment
Release Date: 11/04/2016
Truth be told, discs like In A Silent Way, Impressions, Jazz Goes To College, Underground Music, Brilliant Corners, Ah-Uhm, etc are never far from reach. Nor is the sustained genius of Corea, Jarrett, or Satchmo and the Hot Fives far from the player.
So it’s no secret I’m not really a fan of, quote quote, smooth jazz, and I shy away from reviewing vocalists. Male. Female. Makes no matter. But I keep coming back to Lindsey Webster’s Back To The Heart, her third triumph and her first since she topped the Billboard Smooth Jazz charts in 2015 with “Fool Me Once,” an impassioned original that returned the female vocal to the top spot since Sade in 2010. Perhaps it’s her earthy resonance or the dark moments she smooths into sustained romance that pulls me back.
Maybe it’s the idea that, in a less pigeon-holed, data mined day such as ours, Webster’s expressive melody and lyricism, co-written with clean, uncluttered soundscapes by husband/keyboardist Keith Slattery, might fall into the singer/songwriter category, or dare say, R&B vocal, thus ensuring this rewarding, ever evolving artist with the smokiest of smoky timbre, grace, and versatility, the much larger audience she truly deserves.
– Mike Jurkovic
Listen to “Fast and Slow,” a track from Back To Your Heart HERE.
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