Year: 2005
Record Label: Boogsey Music
Style: Jazz Vocals
Musicians: Kaylene Peoples (vocals, flute), Rich Mouser (guitar) and the Peoples Republic Trio
Review: Vocalist Kaylene Peoples must have been in a nostalgic mood when she made All Jazzed Up! The 13-track CD has a strong lineup of beloved standards, including “My Funny Valentine” and “Lush Life,” creating a late-night jazz club vibe. The album also has a healthy dose of bossa nova tunes, with several numbers from the songbook of Antonio Carlos Jobim. Three original songs round out the CD.
Peoples has a big five-octave range and a voice that floats above the instruments. This airy quality is especially well suited for the breezy bossa numbers that are never too far away.
She kicks off the album with Jobim’s “One Note Samba.” She makes the song sound effortless, interjecting a quick scat as well as a nice flute solo. Some of the album’s best moments come when she is playing flute. Another example of this is on “Girl From Ipanema.” She manages to make the well-traveled song her own, with the addition of a lengthy and fitting instrumental solo.
“One Note Samba” leads into the original “Do You Remember?” The warm ballad sounds like it could have come off of an old Nancy Wilson or Gloria Lynne album.
Peoples then demonstrates her interpretive skills with a jazz treatment of “My Favorite Things.”
She is accompanied on the CD by guitarist Rich Mouser and the Peoples Republic Trio.
Another track worth mentioning is Hoagy Carmichael’s “Nearness of You.” Here, Mouser’s acoustic guitar and Peoples’ vocals work beautifully together on the slow, gentle start. Peoples then kicks it into high gear, upping the tempo before slowing it down again for the ending.
She seems to have made a strong effort to make sure that the songs have a strong beginning and end, a quality that's missing from many productions today.
Throughout the album, Peoples demonstrates that she has a smooth, clear voice that always sounds, well, pretty. That’s generally a good thing. But, on this CD, it works better on the “lighter” material than it does on something like “Lush Life.”
A graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles, the multi-talented Peoples has worked as a film scorewriter and has been involved in a variety of independent films. All Jazzed Up! shows she is also a fine singer.
Tracks: One Note Samba, Do You Remember?, My Favorite Things, My Funny Valentine, Run Away With Me, How Insensitive, Lush Life, Nearness Of You, Girl From Ipanema, Good Morning Heartache, Once I Love, My Only Crime and Wives & Lovers
Record Label Website: http://www.boogseymusic.com
Reviewed by:
Donna Kimura
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