Carmen Gomes Inc. - Ray! (2021) [DSD512]

Singer Carmen Gomes steps into big shoes with her new album ‘Ray!’

With her regular combo she has sings 13 songs that we know from the legendary American singer, pianist and composer Ray Charles recorded in its own bluesy version. You have to but dare to interpret the work of The Genius. Gomes dares it and performs it with sophisticated arrangements have their own twist on classics such as ‘CC Rider‘, ‘Georgia On My Mind‘ and ‘Let The Good Times Roll‘. Carmen’s approach to the soul, jazz and blues by Charles is characterized, just like her earlier work, through respect for the original and a quirky straightforward approach.

Her companions – bassist and husband Peter Bjørnild, drummer Bert Kamsteeg and guitarist Folker Tettero – don’t play a note too many, but what they playing is rock solid. In some pieces Gomes even enough with a measured bass part by Peter, for example in ‘Making Whoopee‘ and ‘The Sun Is Gonna Shine Again‘.

Carmen doesn’t like voice acrobatics. However she swings and touches her ode to Ray from the first until the last note. That she belongs to the top of Dutch Jazz was already apparent in 1994 when she won the Dutch Jazz Vocal Competition. With the entrance of Folker Tettero in 2006 the blues got the upper hand in the Carmen Gomes Inc. band. Carmen leans comfortably on Folker’s measured chords and riffs. Nevertheless, the Jazz always audible in Gomes’ trained voice, which challenges and drags along – without exaggeration or raising your voice.