Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Rachel Z: Sensual

Rachel Z: Sensual

By Mike Jurkovic
March 28, 2024
View read count

Whatever her impetus—be it the loss of her parents or peans to a shared sense of hearth, home and heaven—pianist/composer

Rachel Z

keyboards

" data-original-title="" title="">Rachel Z's thirteenth full length album, Sensual, bares a sincere, hopeful humanity.

Buoyed by a sense of survival, Sensual opens as if it were a letter, closing with the Foo Fighters' crotch-kick raise-the-roof-'n-rile-'em-up "These Days." Sensual pulls one in fast and fully with the keenly seductive opener, "Save My Soul." It dances. It stirs.

Z, whose sense of bombast has its detractors (but then again don't we all?), keeps it under wraps until "These Days," flooding the room with melodious song. "Bodhisattva" is cut from the same three-card monte that certified

Wayne Shorter

saxophone
1933 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Wayne Shorter a genius. "Forgive Me" moves much like Peter Gabriel, soothing the common sorrow with the luxury of song. Both tracks hail and celebrate, slipping and sliding over and under, around and between their regal five and four-minute expanses.

Partnered with the people she knows best—drummer/life partner

Omar Hakim

drums
b.1959

" data-original-title="" title="">Omar Hakim, bassist

Mark Penman

" data-original-title="" title="">Mark Penman (

Joshua Redman

saxophone
b.1969

" data-original-title="" title="">Joshua Redman,

Kurt Rosenwinkel

guitar
b.1970

" data-original-title="" title="">Kurt Rosenwinkel) and percussionist?

Mino Cinelu

percussion
b.1957

" data-original-title="" title="">Mino Cinelu (

Miles Davis

trumpet
1926 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis,

Sting

bass, electric
b.1951

" data-original-title="" title="">Sting)—the pianist holds her vision strong. "What I Fear" proves that ace is high. Starting as a hint of an anthem, Z, Hakim and Penman barter and shake. The tune grows exponentially. Z bounds across the rhythmic highlands. The tune never tires. Half

Steely Dan

band / ensemble / orchestra
b.1972

" data-original-title="" title="">Steely Dan and half

Leonard Bernstein

composer / conductor
1918 - 1990

" data-original-title="" title="">Leonard Bernstein, "What About the Kids" is a real treat for the ears and the heart. Guest bassist

Tony Levin

bass
b.1946

" data-original-title="" title="">Tony Levin's loping adventure centers the title track. Beautiful but predictable, "Inamorata Enamorata" may hide its hot striding moments beside an all-too-easy shimmy of samba innuendo, but it is a momentary blip in the audio bliss, because Sensual sounds like and is something grand from start to finish.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Save My Soul; What I Fear; Bodhisattva; Forgive Me; What About the Kids; Inamorata; Shepard��s Lullaby; Sensual; These Days.

Personnel

Rachel Z

keyboards

Omar Hakim

drums

Mino Cinelu

percussion

Tony Levin

bass

Matt Penman

bass

Jonathan Toscano

bass

Album information

Title: Sensual | Year Released: 2024 | Record Label: Dot Time Records

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Hadley Caliman / Pete Christlieb: Re...
< Previous

Louis Sclavis, David Le��n, Roby Glo...
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.