Any journalist looking for fresh words to praise the extraordinarily versatile, supremely swinging vocalist and scat maestra Michelle Nicolle will simply never top what her home country publication once quite accurately said: “If there’s such a phenomenon as the perfect jazz singer, (she) is far and away my choice.
Though the versatile band leader and arranger produced most of her ten previous albums with her band The MN Quartet, for The Silent Wish, her exquisite, soulfully sensual yet playful and frisky dual album with guitarist and SoCal jazz stalwart Larry Koonse, she drew inspiration from classic vocal-guitar duos like Tuck & Patti and Ella Fitzgerald/Joe Pass. Nicolle and Koonse offer dazzling twists and turns, as on the opening ballad “When Your Lover Has Gone,” which starts out soothing, then peps up for one of the album’s many gravity defying scat passages followed by an intricate, hoppin’ guitar solo.
Another notable example of this dynamic (and as good an entry point to the full magic as any) is “All the Things You Are,” where the scatting heads ever skyward. The non-scat tunes like “I Hope I Never” (a heartrending twist on an 80’s Split Enz gem) and “I’m Glad There is You” offer showcases for her pindrop perfect emotional expression, taking the listener on dynamic explorations of her vast vocal range.
While the collection mostly features the duo’s fresh, organic reworkings of familiar standards, the one Nicolle original, the witty, cleverly phrased “Putting It Off,” offers a perfect showcase for her towering ability as a jazz storyteller via an ode to what she calls her “superpower,” the fine art of procrastination.
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