Reviewed by Eric Saeger
Unadventurous cocktail-jazz sung impeccably by three-octave-ranging newcomer Julie Weiner with occasional vocal spots from pianist Doug Onstadt. I like that Weiner isn’t afraid to walk the wire, even with such clinical, stale production. Within these dishwasher-safe by-the-book tinklings she wrings out her lungs on a few long-held high notes, scats without sounding like she’s taking an exam, and even flouts her French vocab in the original ‘Si C’est Un Oui’. Onstadt’s low-end tenor works nicely to break up Weiner’s stretches of clean-honky PBS-kids-programming-ready vanilla-ness, which can get a tad cloying. I’m being overly picky toward this act, I’ll admit, but I’m always about evolution – honestly, if I ruled the world, every non-Amy Winehouse jazz act would be locked up in a room with a tech-head and his Ableton until unique results came out of it.
Grade: B-
