Live At The Blue Note L.A.

Live At The Blue Note L.A.

Sometimes a standards album will try and set itself apart by radically reinterpreting or rearranging familiar songs; other times, as in the case of this set by the Grammy-winning 26-year-old vocalist Samara Joy, the art lies in taking latent or hidden qualities in the music and making them heard. Take “Lush Life,” which Joy sings with the familiar wistful resignation but adds a stormy, tormented quality that borders on tragic. Or Jerome Kern’s “Yesterdays”, which piggybacks on Ella Fitzgerald’s Latin-style interpretation by adding a rhythmic lift that makes the song’s themes of nostalgia mysterious, even sinister—a surprising shift. Add the Antônio Carlos Jobim/Vinícius de Moraes classic “Chega de Saudade” (here presented as “No More Blues”) and the vocal version of Monk’s “Round Midnight”—a song to which lyrics arguably add nothing, but that Joy makes a case for—and you’ll get the hype.