Elisabeth Kontomanou - Brewin' The Blues (2008)

Reviews:

Awarded “Best Jazz Vocalist of 2006” in France (Les Victoires du Jazz), Elisabeth reaches the peak of her art with her new album “Waitin’ For Spring”. Assisted by world-class players—multi-Grammy winner John Scofield, outstanding soprano saxist Sam Newsome, brilliant French keyboarder Laurent Coq, Monk Competition winner Darryl Hall and young talent Donald Kontomanou --, she delivers vocal renditions totally fresh and yet deeply rooted in the tradition of classic jazz singing. A collection of attractive originals and indestructible standard songs—among them Hebb’s “Sunny”, Distel’s “Good Life”, Mingus’ “Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love”, Arlen’s “I Gotta Right To Sing The Blues” and others --, this album presents a great jazz vocalist with an approach that is all her own.

“She is on her way to becoming one of the great voices of the next decades” (Rap Mag).

She is as soulful as Sarah Vaughan, as smooth and mellow as Dianne Reeves and comes equipped with a fighting spirit as passionate as Nina Simone’s. She is fire and ice, earth and water, innocent and sage.-Christopher Loudon