Women In Jazz – The New Century

Women In Jazz
The New Century
(Concord Jazz – 2001)
  by Carmen Miller

Women In Jazz: The New Century features ten tracks by women who are currently recording on Concord, with one track from each artist’s latest recording. Diane Schuur performs her rendition of Easy Living accompanied by a ‘digitally reintroduced’ Stan Getz…. this is a nice track. Nnenna Freelon’s Better Than Anything probably is better than anything else on this CD (or at least I thought so).

Sheila E.s N Perfect Time is sultry and sweet, combining a message-melody with Sheila’s percussive talents and smooth keyboards to produce a solid smooth-jazz track. I also particulary like Marian McPartland’s piano playing, so the inclusion of her A-Train was a pleasant surprise. The rest of this CD is also filled with good, solid songs from a number of fine Women in Jazz. Kudos to Concord for signing and promoting so many talented women and thanks for putting together this fine collection.