Alison Moyet's latest CD Voice is the most successful example of a standards recording by a singer initially famous for their work in rock and pop. Everything about the album works. The arrangements and orchestrations are lush and the songs chosen are a strong and diverse bunch, including jazz standards, English folk ballads, arias from Purcell and Bizet and a couple songs by Elvis Costello. Most importantly, the title element, Moyet's voice is wonderfully expressive.
Anne Dudley, the Academy Award winning composer and a member of The Art of Noise, produced, arranged and plays piano on Voice. Moyet came in with a handful of tunes in mind for the project and worked with Dudley to round the album out to twelve pieces. The precision of the orchestration is evident from the first notes of "Windmills of Your Mind," as are Moyet's interpretive abilities. Somehow, Moyet manages to take songs like "The Man I Love" and "Cry Me A River" and redefine them as her own. She doesn't sound like she is copying Billie Holiday or Julie London, and she never sounds out of her depth.
JazzReview.com
