Sara Gazarek - Live at The Jazz Bakery (2006)

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Sara Gazarek - Live at The Jazz Bakery (2006)

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Don't let the photos on some of Sara Gazarek's albums and promtional stuff–a barefoot young lady dressed more like a folk singer from the 60's–fool you. This lady is a jazz singer–and an up and coming jazz lion at that. Recording an album live–especially an acoustic jazz album–has to be somewhat schizophrenic for an artist. On one hand, there is the "electricity" that performing before a live audience can bring to a performance; on the other hand, any miscues or imperfections are likely to make it to the recording, too. The fear of not generating the former and the possibility of doing the latter is probably why there are relatively few artists that choose to record live albums. Well, let us just say that Sara Gazarek–for all of her young, innocent look–is fearless on the stage. She engages the audience here with an eclectic bunch of tunes on this album–and those mistakes, well, she and her band make few. This would be a solid studio performance, but it's even better live.

Sara's band, with pianist Josh Nelson in the lead, puts forth a solid performance. They swing on the up tunes and they shine on the ballads. Probably the most unusual tune on the album is the first, the standard "Cheek to Cheek." This tune can best be described like two people coming from different directions and meeting at a bus stop–Sara singing pretty much the straight melody and rhythm, with the band–with Josh Nelson front and center–playing a totally modern, syncopated, and sometimes dissonant arrangement concurrently. You wonder when they are all going to musically meet up–you wait, almost anxiously–but eventually they do. Quite a tightwire act for the first tune on the album. That approach contrasts quite starkly with the very "straight" approach they use a little bit later on "I've Got It Bad and That Ain't Good." This lovely arrangement is sung perfectly by Ms. Gazarek, with Josh and the band supporting her every inch of the way. Nelson's piano solo shows musical maturity beyond what one might expect from someone twice his age. For me, this is probably the best tune on this album. (By the way, as I write this, there is another live performance of this tune by Sara floating around on YouTube. It's a great watch to go with this album–one look at that will tell you why Sara is such a captivating young singer–she has "it.")

This album was no doubt a fun romp for both the band and the audience. Unlike so many "light" albums, this one has some very solid jazz musicians at its core. They know their stuff. If they are this good now–at a relatively young and tender age–we can only hope how even more wonderful they are down the line. I can think of a hundred tunes that I'd love to hear this lady sing.