Almost two years ago I heard the debut album of a terrific pianist and singer. Her name was Wendy Kirkland and I’d never heard of her, which was odd, because when there’s something really good in the offing the word soon gets round. After my review appeared, it turned out that some musicians knew about Wendy – those who’d played at Chesterfield Jazz Club, where she was the house pianist. This is her second album, coinciding with her second tour, and it’s even more assured and full of surprises than the first.
This time there are three originals and several existing instrumentals to which she added her own lyrics; Wes Montgomery’s West Coast Blues is especially good, with a nice guitar solo by Pat Sprakes. Notable, too, is the Kirkland speciality of scat singing in unison with an improvised piano solo, which must be quite tricky. In fact, a lot of this happy, relaxed-sounding music is probably tricky, but it doesn’t show. That’s the mark of a good band, which this quartet is. The two guest soloists, vibraphonist Roger Beaujolais and saxophonist Tommaso Starace add some judicious highlights to a great set.
