Gloria Cooper - Dedicated To You (2005)

Tracklist

01. All My Love, Especially For You
02. Just A Little Boy
03. Garden In The Sand
04. Two Reflect As One
05. Dedicated To You
06. Seabreeze
07. Something Unusual
08. You Never Leave My Mind
09. Reveling In The Beat
10. Big Brown Eyes
11. Without You
12. Come Rain Or Come Shine



A fairly straight singer with a warm but cool voice, Gloria Cooper at times hints at Maxine Sullivan and Shirley Horn. The program on Dedicated to You is filled with superior obscurities taken from Don Sickler's Second Floor Music publications Sing Jazz and Sing More Jazz. Many of the songs, written by jazz musicians, received their recording debut (particularly as vocals) on this set, including numbers by John Oddo, Hank Mobley, Jon Burr, Renee Rosnes, and the late James Williams. Cooper does a fine job of adding warmth to the lyrics, also playing piano in the backup group, which on some numbers is a full sextet featuring excellent trumpet solos from Sickler. Dedicated to You, which only includes two standards among the dozen songs, shows that some fine new originals were written by jazz musicians in recent times, even if most remain unknown to the general public. Singers in need of fresh material are particularly recommended to explore this outing.

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