Connie Evingson - Sweet Happy Life (2012)

Connie Evingson may have just released the best album of her career to date, which is saying a lot. In 2009, she told MinnPost about her interest in Norman Gimbel, an Oscar- and Grammy-winning lyricist whose name has largely been forgotten but whose songs The Girl from Ipanema, Killing Me Softly with His Song, I Will Wait for You are part of the canon. Her new CD, Sweet Happy Life, is the first all-Gimbel album ever recorded, and it is delicious.

Hip-swinging samba and bossa nova, sensuous love songs ( his gaze swept over me like a slow hot wind ), and a song by Antonio Jobim with never-before-recorded lyrics by Gimbel. Plus a pensive new arrangement of Killing Me Softly, a song forever identified with Roberta Flack but convincingly reinterpreted by Evingson. --Pamela Espeland, MinnPost

Ever-resourceful Connie Evingson has come up with another inspired album concept. After doing projects on Peggy Lee, gypsy jazz and the Beatles, the jazz-leaning Minneapolis songbird takes on songs by Norman Gimbel, the wordsmith behind Girl From Ipanema, Bluesette and Killing Me Softly With His Song. On Sweet Happy Life, she does a wonderful job on 16 tunes (including the never-recorded and mysterious Adventure ), adding the right shadings, textures and vibe to each and affording stand-out players including pianist Laura Caviani and guitarist Danny Embrey solo opportunities. --Star Tribune