Bria Skonberg - Into Your Own (2014)

Multi-talented Singer/Trumpeter/Composer BRIA SKONBERGs second release on Random Act Records, INTO YOUR OWN, features her tight vocal harmonies (her own overdubbed voice) and evolving trumpet skills on several of her original compositions. After the success of her American debut album, SO IS THE DAY, the young Canadians follow-up effort is just as satisfying. Supported by her touring band (piano, bass, drums and a reed player) and the legendary percussionist Mino Cinelu (Miles Davis, Weather Report, Gil Evans), Bria delivers a joyfully listenable set of memorable melodies. Kicking things off with the samba-esque, inviting party song, Come Into Your Own, slinking into the bossa groove of the beguiling Little Girl, swinging the noir-like Lets Go All In, and even going a bit country on Six More Weeks, she illustrates her broad musical range. The lyrical jaunt continues with All My Life, a song with the flavor of Jamiroquai; a playful plea to Share The Wealth; a street-corner quartet query of Why Do You Do?; and, finally, the LGBT anthem Go Tell It, an ode to equality. Brias talents, while tinged with thoroughly modern, millennial sensibilities, are rooted in New Orleans. She does JellyRoll Morton proud by delivering his Whinin Boy like a red-hot mama, but one wielding an electrified, clarion trumpet. She mashes up a standard, Three Little Words, with the scintillating horn lines of Stevie Wonders Sir Duke, and touches hearts with a lovely pop/ballad called Break My Fall, a song co-written with former Nancy Wilson music director (and Random Act Records artist) Michael Wolff. The only true ballad treatment on the album is given to John Lennons beauteous Julia. INTO YOUR OWN is intended to entertain and inspire a wide audience, including jazz and pop fans. Bria is destined to be a breakout artist for this young century.