Bonnie J Jensen - The Sapphire Tree (2007)

With this, her third CD for La Brava, Bonnie J Jensen has moved up several artistic and creative notches. The Sapphire Tree is a highly mature and at the same time entertaining piece of work, a superb balance of the familiar and the new.......As a vocalist, she is blessed with astonishing accuracy and a deep feeling for her lyric~(Steve Robertson, PBS Radio, Melbourne).

A vocal and instrumental tour de force. (South China Morning Post, April 2007)
"... she draws on many influences, sounding sometimes reminiscent of Renee Geyer, at others traces of Peggy Lee or Sarah Vaughan emerge!" (The Australian
Weekend Review review February 2007)

Bonnie J Jensen's third album "The Sapphire Tree" follows the last recording "Blue Joy" on her continuing journey towards a more personal style resulting in a certain glowing warmth of sound and musical integrity. The collaboration with the core musicians of the ARIA (Australia's equivalent of the Grammys) winning jazz group Wanderlust, brings an element of contemporary and European jazz flavour to the sound. This compliments Bonnie's soulful interpretations well and subtly enhances her unique approaches to her diverse selection of songs, including three new engaging originals including the title song. Listeners familiar with her past work will appreciate Bonnie's signature treatments of classic songs, both jazz standards and pop classics. Here they have reworked U2's "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" by changing the meter and adding a haunting horn arrangement. Her rendition of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing", like many of the tracks on this album, displays the wide emotional range of her voice.

Personnel: Bonnie J Jensen -Vocals, Piano (Tracks 1, 5, 7, 3) Alister Spence -Fender Rhodes, Organ, Piano (Tracks 2, 4, 9, 11) Craig Walters - Tenor and Soprano Saxophone Fabian Hevia - Drums, Percussion Jeremy Sawkins - GuitarsJohn Napier - Cello Jonathan Zwartz - Bass Miroslav Bukovsky - Trumpet, Flugelhorn

Bonnie is s a respected and versatile singer, songwriter and pianist. Born in New Zealand but based in Sydney, Australia for many years, she has also performed repeatedly in Europe, Japan and Hong Kong. She released her debut album "Lucky So & So" in August 2001. This album quickly reached No.3 in the Australian Independent Jazz Charts. It was surpassed by her second release "Blue Joy" in 2004 that featured luminaries Don Rader (trumpet), Jeremy Sawkins (guitar) and Jonathan Zwartz (bass). "Blue Joy" rose to No. 8 in Japan's (vocal) Jazz charts for the month of June 2004. Both albums now sell in 6 countries and receive a lot of local airplay in Australia.