It’s a crying shame that a
jazz vocalist who sings as divinely as Meri Slaven isn’t a household name.
Sure, in Michigan, her home state, she's popular and she’s performs regularly
at upscale clubs and restaurants. She’s also a key member of a hot vocal group
the Metro Jazz Voices. Maybe the recent release of her new album “Get Out Of
Town,” will get her the national attention she’s earned and she deserves. “Get
Out Of Town” has 13 songs and she staffed the album with some top Detroit jazz
musicians such as Ron English, Sean Dobbins, Paul Keller, and Scott Gwinnell. Hard to
make less than a stellar album with such star power. Slaven pours her voice over
well-known oldies such as “The Trouble with Me is You,” “Moonlight” and “Like a
Lover”. The cuts likely to get played over and over are “A Blossom Fell,” “I
Thought About You” and “True Colors” because you get to experience Slaven one
on one with Gwinnell and Keller. Her voice could turn the devil into a romantic.
Gary Schunk has been an in
demand jazz pianist for decades. Early this year, the Detroit jazz community
almost lost him. He was in a near fatal car accident. Fortunately, he’s bounced
back and is back on the scene swinging harder than ever. There’s a lot of work
yet to do. First order of business is he has to push his new album “Kayak,” one of the finest
jazz trio recordings made in Detroit in a while. Pure down to the bone jazz, akin to the classic trio dates great jazz pianist such as Red Garland and Tommy Flanagan used to make. “Kayak”
is the sixth album on the Detroit Music Factory.
Schunk is at the top of his game, which isn’t surprising. There’s never been a
time when he wasn’t. As some of his peers have noted over the years he's gifted and he can play everything R&B, classical, bop, Latin, and swing. Fronting a trio, as the album clearly proves, is his true calling. There are 12 cuts on
“Kayak” that Schunk, drummer Peter Erskine, and bassist Ray Parker approach
with the adherence to craftsmanship of master tailors.
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