Alice Zawadzki - Lela (2015)

Vocalist Alice Zawadzki has been steadily fulfilling the promise of her striking recorded debut on her own account and with a variety of creative UK newcomers, including Phil Meadows and drummer/composer Corrie Dick in recent times. This wide-ranging collection features her congenial partnership with pianist Dan Whieldon, on songs by Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane and Nina Simone, Galician writer Castelao, Handel and more. Zawadzki’s delicate intonation and boppish nimbleness and Whieldon’s limpid swing join on Shorter’s Black Nile, the Coltrane classic Naima has a heartfelt simplicity intensified by its haunting closing ascent, the liltingly graceful Spanish song of the title track is warmed by the classical clarinet of Whieldon’s wife Rosa Campos Fernandez. Nina Simone’s I’m Gonna Leave You shows Zawadzki’s sound can be earthy as well as pristine, and Handel’s Lascia Ch’io Pianga is delivered respectfully and meticulously straight. Production values are a little casual (a throat-clearing stays in on Basin Street Blues), but the musicality of these two glows through.

Tracklist:
01. Alice Zawadzki - Black Nile (4:01)
02. Alice Zawadzki - Naima (4:54)
03. Alice Zawadzki - Tenderly (5:34)
04. Alice Zawadzki - Lela (5:58)
05. Alice Zawadzki - Coralie (4:36)
06. Alice Zawadzki - There at the Turnpike (5:16)
07. Alice Zawadzki - Basin Street Blues (3:19)
08. Alice Zawadzki - Para Ti (4:38)
09. Alice Zawadzki - I'm Gonna Leave You (3:56)
10. Alice Zawadzki - Lascia Ch'io Pianga (4:47)