Cyrille Aimee And Friends - Live At Smalls (2011)

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Cyrille Aimee And Friends - Live At Smalls (2011)

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Cyrille Aimée has consistently proven herself to be an unstoppable, undeniable talent in the modern age of jazz. Her culturally rich background has supplied her with the driving force of Dominican rhythm and the incredible swing of the French Gypsies.

Taking these natural abilities with her across the world, she has received rave reviews and a loyal following in each country she graces with her voice. She was a finalist in the prestigious Thelonious Monk Vocal Competition of 2010, performing in front of a jury of Al Jarreau, Kurt Elling, Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater.

In 2007, Cyrille won both the first and public prize in the Montreux Jazz Festival Competition. For her SmallsLIVE debut, she is accompanied by jazz legend Roy Hargrove as well as tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm. The rhythm section consists of pianist Spike Wilner, bassist Phil Khuen and drummer Joey Saylor. Editorial Reviews (Amazon.com)

Cyrille Aimée is a young French jazz singer living in New York. She has become a regular at Smalls jazz club (which routinely documents its gigs on CD and online, so her reputation might deservedly spread), often alongside pianist Spike Wilner and saxophonist Joel Frahm, who are joined here by trumpeter Roy Hargrove.

There are plenty of standards (Yesterdays, Love for Sale, Lover Man), but Aimée is a subtle and articulate vocalist with a lot of harmonic awareness, and her partnership with Wilner is a very sympathetic one. She's light-stepping, casually fluent and persuasive on a softly swinging September in the Rain, with Frahm's luxurious tenor lines winding around her.

She's coolly understated in a soft glide with Wilner and Hargrove on Que Reste-T'il, while a Latin Love for Sale works better than the notion implies, and Aimée deftly negotiates the rhythmic pitfalls in delivering Jon Hendricks's lyrics to Thelonious Monk's bumpy and swinging I Mean You.

A finale on Ben E King's Stand By Me reveals broader world-music qualities in Aimée than her mostly swing-and-standards choices imply.
John Fordham