Lauren Hooker's vocals are the "Life of the Music"

Husky voiced Lauren Hooker is a multi-talented jazz vocalist, composer, lyricist, pianist and educator. Based in the New York area, she has just issued her second recording Life of the Music (Miles High Records), in which bassist Rufus Reid contributes the liner notes. Reid observes about Ms. Hooker that, “Her voice is mature, rich and robust, and full of emotion that only experience can bring.” On this session, which she co-produced she has a nice group of musicians including Jim Ridl on piano and Scott Robinson on reeds and brass while Mike Richmond guests on cello and bass on several selections. The program has four interpretations from the AMerican songbook, and seven originals for a diverse program that as Reid notes has “something here for everyone’s tastes.”

The title track was inspired by a poem an anonymous person left Hooker a few years back inspired by her performance which she evocatively delivers the lyric of “the jazz coming slow, crashing-blasting, … shattering on the wall before it stops,” as the rhythm swirls under her and poet Jeanette Curtis Rideau who recites “Your Music Brings Out the Poetry In Me.” Throughout Robinson soprano responds to the vocals and pianist Ridl taking a marvelous Tyner-esque solo. If That’s What You Feel, is a lovely vocal sung against a samba rhythm as Scott adding trumpet and flute with an assured trumpet solo before another masterful piano solo by Ridl. Reid in his notes observes the Blakey-ish opening for Love Me or Leave Me, before Hooker starts her vocal with a horn-like delivery over a rather narrow vocal range, but quite effective. While Robinson plays trumpet and tenor for the opening, he takes a fairly robust solo on this track. 

A lovely original ballad, I Am Doing Very Well. has some lovely trumpet from Robinson and followed by a dreamy interpretation of Joni Mitchell’s Song to a Seagull, with Mike Richmond adding cello while Tim Horton plays a lot of small instruments (including a rubbie duckie) as part of his percussion playing here,. Hooker exhibits a bit more vocal range here. Rogers & Hart’s Spring Is Here, is a delightful jazz waltz with Robinson flute fluttering and soaring with bassist Martin Wind taking a solo break before Robinson on flute. Countin’ On the Blues, is a straight-forward blues number with Robinson adding punchy horns while John Hart adds some jazzy blues guitar. The lyrics are fairly generic and her vocal sounds a bit too calculated although Ridl and Robinson take nice solos as she is countin’ on her blues, since she can’t count on her man. This track, and the funky Walkin’ on Down the Line, as she is walking away from her man do not come across as convincing and in tune with the lyrics and music as elsewhere on this disc. Much better is her intimate rendition of Leonard Bernstein’s Some Other Time, where her legato phrasing better displays her considerable strengths as a singer.

Lauren Hooker is has a way with crafting lyrics and music as well as is a marvelous singer. There are a couple of minor mishaps perhaps, but the performances on “Life of the Music” are generally on a very high level, and I suspect those seeing her live performances witness some superb music.

My review copy was provided by a publicist.