Alicia Hall Moran - Heavy Blue (2015)

Tracklist

01. Believe Me
02. I Like the Sunrise
03. Open Door
04. Flow My Tears / Cruisin'
05. Deep River
06. Come Back into My Life
07. The Little Horses
08. Shh
09. Heavy Blue Muse
10. Come Back into My Life 2

Alicia Hall Moran is a mezzo-soprano whose classical training and Broadway credentials only begin to map her aesthetic breadth. Her debut album, “Heavy Blue,” runs less than 40 minutes but covers some ground, moving with purpose through an African-American spiritual, a Duke Ellington overture, a Renaissance lute song and a few emotionally potent originals. (It’s the first release on a new label owned by Ms. Hall Moran and her husband, the pianist Jason Moran, who served as producer and plays on two tracks.) The singing is deeply assured and pliable in its effect: Ms. Hall Moran has a bell-like tone and impeccable control, but she understands what a bit of ragged intensity can do. And she seeks out provocative partners, like the guitarists Mary Halvorson, who brings a gangly disquiet to the traditional lullaby “All the Pretty Little Horses,” and Brandon Ross, whose shimmery effects arrive only near the end of “Believe Me,” a quietly troubled art song that unfolds in the spirit of a beckoning postcard.

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