CD of the Day - "Anna Luna: Sketches"

CD of the Day
Anna Luna: "Sketches" (FAM/New Mood Jazz) 2007/2008

Barcelona-born jazz singer Anna Luna traveled to Udine (Italy) to record, in 2007, her fifth solo album (and her second for the Spanish label New Mood Jazz). Now distributed by FAM, "Sketches" deserves to be praised as one of the most challenging albums, by a jazz songstress, to come along in years. It's a truly rare case of a perfect repertoire in the beautiful & pure voice of a perfect singer, with the support of an infallible group of musicians: Jaume Vilaseca (piano), Curro Gálvez (bass), Roberto Faenzi (drums), Simone La Maida (alto sax, soprano sax, flute) and Massimo Morganti (trombone), under the smart executive production of Frank Andrada.

A few seconds are enough to reveal the big influence of my favorite male jazz singer, Mark Murphy. A very positive inspiration, indeed. Wisely, Anna Luna doesn't try to imitate him, doesn't want to sound like a "female Murphy". She takes everything she learned from Mark's recordings and recycles the best ingredients, sounding like her own woman. Actually, it's very interesting to hear Anna performing some songs that have been part of Murphy's book for decades, such as Oliver Nelson's masterpiece "Stolen Moments" (for which Murphy later added lyrics in 1978 when recording an album also titled "Stolen Moments" for the Muse label). Most recently, this tune re-appeared as the centerpiece of his latest Verve project, the ultra-sophisticated "Love Is What Stays", voted one of the best albums of 2007 by the Jazz Station Poll. Now, "Sketches" certainly will make the 2008 list.

Anna Luna is such an original force of nature that even too often recorded songs like "My Favourite Things" (in an up-tempo arrangement, full of time signature changes, with Anna phrasing rhythmically a la Diane Reeves during the tag while Simone La Maida evokes the underrateds Clifford Jordan & Charlie Rouse) and "What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life?" (maybe Legrand's most haunting ballad, here spotlighting Galvéz's warm bass lines) sound fresh and, believe it or not, "new" on her seductive voice. Btw, her ability on ballads is another big quality. Kudos also to the late Shirley Horn, another strong source of inspiration.

The fact that Diana Krall recently recorded great versions of "Devil May Care" and "All or Nothing at All", doesn't intimidates her, who offers excellent renditions of both tunes, adding a latin-tinge to the latter. Even more surprising is the sensual treatment to "Early Autumn", which also showcases Morganti's trombone and Vilaseca on the Fender Rhodes I love so much.

The performances of "Mediterráneo" (written by Spanish pop star Joan Manuel Serrat) and Jobim's "Zingaro", retitled "Retrato em Branco e Preto" after Chico Buarque added lyrics (sung by Anna in Portuguese) are also noteworthy. Anna Luna's herself provided the Spanish lyrics to three songs: Sinatra's hit "If I Should Lose You" (done in a delightful unpredictable arrangement), Dizzy Gillespie's bop anthem "Night in Tunisia" (that became "Y Se Hace de Noche en Tunisia") and Cedar Walton's sunny original "Firm Roots". Amazing and stunning.