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Vokal-Jazz vom Feinsten!!Clare Teal must rank as one of Yorkshire's best kept secrets; despite the signature to a major label and the issue of this highly commercial and polished, but excellent, album, she has not garnered quite the same level of attention or sales as the peers with which she is compared, the likes of Buble or Cullum, Melua or Jones.

She's much better than all of them.

She has a lovely voice, smooth, golden, a full range, and has Peggy Lee's knack of phrasing that is individual without being eccentric, so that she makes even the much-covered songs her own. Her material, both standards and originals, covers a tremendous range, from big band numbers to diva ballads, through soulful blues and quiet love songs, to smokey Ellington jazz and 40s/50s harmony group and samba numbers. She is eminently comfortable with all these styles, and full marks must go to her backing band and arrangers (she arranges her own vocals) who have got everything just about spot on; it is very smooth and polished, but it is dynamic when it needs to be, so that the music does feel alive. And all of the instrumentation is real.

Four of the songs were written solely or jointly by her; they fit in perfectly with all the covers, and are just as tuneful and varied, which is no mean feat.

This is a highly accomplished and enjoyable album. It's easy listening at its best, classy, dynamic, tuneful. It also gets better with repeated listening, and I've just bumped up my reating to the full monty. It's not a jazz album, though, and I suspect that its listing in that category (both here and in the shops) might have put some people off, as might the slightly scary sleeve photo (which is nothing compared to her earlier albums!). Only jazz purists will be disappointed with this, but to the vast majority of people I commend it.

vocal Jazz