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Judy Wexler: No Wonder
by Pierre Giroux
Judy Wexler's release No Wonder is a portrait in vocal jazz artistry, underscored by thoughtful arrangements from pianist and arranger Jeff Colella and a luminous supporting cast of Los Angeles A-list musicians including multi-instrumentalists Danny Janklow, and Bob Sheppard, trumpeter Jay Jennings guitarist Larry Koonse, bassist Gabe Davis and drummer Steve Hass. The twelve-tune track list is a refreshingly curated program of standards that steer away from the overly familiar, instead embracing the “hipper" corners of the ...
Continue ReadingMTB, Michel Petrucciani, Judy Wexler, Carl Allen and more.
by Benjamin Boddie
Today's Music--Right Now! Fantastic music by MTB, Jacob Wutzke, Michel Petrucciani, Judy Wexler, Bruce Harris, Jenny Hill, Oz Noy, Eugenie Jones, George Cables, Brian Lynch, Bill Moio, David Caffey, Alvin Queen, Christopher Boscole, Dave Stryker, Carl Allen, Brad Goode, Joe Syrian, Peter Erskine, Ryan Middagh and more. Playlist MTB “Angola" from Solid Jackson (Criss Cross) 00:00 Jacob Wutzke “Qwaltz" from You Better Bet (Cellar Music Group) 06:08 Michel Petrucciani “La Champagne" from Jazz Club Montmartre--CPH 1988 (Storyville Records) ...
Continue ReadingJudy Wexler: No Wonder
by Dan Bilawsky
Judy Wexler imbues every song she touches with a sense of realism, wonder and depth that's ever so rare. An inimitable artist, this celebrated singer adds volumes to each story she encounters, be it a post-millennial jazz tune, '60s counterculture anthem, glimmering Brazilian jewel or any number of other finds. In the case of No Wonder--Wexler's seventh album, arriving two decades after her debut--she demonstrates her gifts with a marked emphasis on standards. Longtime collaborator/pianist Jeff Colella's ...
Continue ReadingJudy Wexler: Back to the Garden
by Richard J Salvucci
Man, if you can pick a tougher project to sell to an aging Boomer than Judy Wexler's Back to the Garden, then you will have to say what it might be. For a lot of the Swinging and Breathing Elderly, this music is intensely personal. Not just where were you, or who were you with? But what were you doing? And most of all, why? Not everyone was a protester or a demonstrator, much less a hippie. Not everyone made ...
Continue ReadingJudy Wexler: Back to the Garden
by Nicholas F. Mondello
A glance at the tracks on this album might make one think that it is a well-selected gathering of '60s message tunes from compilation stalwart, Rhino Records. That not being the case, rest assured that Back to the Garden presents those iconic Pop selections so incredibly re- imagined that what we experience could easily be considered “new selections." Judy Wexler--petite in stature, but tremendously talented and agile in artistry--and her cadre of LA's best, delivers her finest performance ...
Continue ReadingJudy Wexler: Crowded Heart
by Dan Bilawsky
For her fifth album, Judy Wexler has embraced a concept that's oddly foreign in the jazz vocal realm. Instead of walking her way down the all-too-familiar avenues for singers—classic Broadway-cum-jazz material, canonical works written by revered jazz figures, pop tunes reshaped with harmonic facelifts, self-penned originals—she takes the road less traveled by focusing on the work of jazz composers thriving in the present. In doing so she magnifies the importance of these artists, highlights material worthy of greater attention, and ...
Continue ReadingJudy Wexler: Crowded Heart
by Nicholas F. Mondello
"Tribute," “re-imagined," “remembered," “Great American Songbook." You won't see or hear those words anywhere on Crowded Heart, Judy Wexler's fifth and best effort to date. What you will hear are 10 sublime cuts from some of the finest composers and lyricists in the game. Here Wexler revels in songs where romance and all of its kaleidoscopic intersections are the order of the day. “Circus Life," the opener, is a samba with Wexler spinning the tale of life's ...
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