CD review: Brussels Jazz Orchestra - "A Different Porgy & Another Bess"

Joined by the artful Maria João and the Brussels National Jazz Orchestra, David Linx’s new riff on the Gershwin classic moves the work away from its essentially African-American cultural motifs, to explore what he considers to be the full humanity of these eponymous characters.

Musically, Linx brings a vocal ease and richness of tone to the work, while Maria João combines vocal sparkle with a playfulness uniquely her own. The Brussels National Jazz Orchestra is impressively precise and ordered, though I would have liked a pinch more soulfulness to complete the picture.

(Naïve)

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