CD Reviews: Adia Promotional EP “Blue Skies”
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Posted by: adminon Thursday, March 30, 2006 - 05:51 PM |
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By Edward Blanco
Stage actress Adia Ginneh Dobbins takes a major step in launching her musical career with her new Blue Skies sampling. Adia made her professional stage debut in the play Lion King. She played the part of Nala, the adult lioness on the national tour of the play in which she received praise not only for her performance, but also for her singing. On this project, Adia is joined by pianist Scott Patterson, guitarist Anthony Michael Peterson, bassist Andrew Higgins, drummer John Mader, Wilson Torres on percussions and Matthew Constantine on the flute.
This promotional set contains three tunes which are the Irving Berlin “Blue Skies”, the title cut, “Lazy Afternoon” and “A Case of You.” The tunes are all different in style and texture. Adia’s high pitch alto voice serves her well when reaching those high notes. The opener starts off rather slow but warms up with the piano then is engaged by Adia in a tune that finds her hitting some high notes with ease. I particularly enjoyed “Lazy Afternoon,” a beautiful and delicious melodic number sung by Adia whose voice caresses the lyrics with grace and elegance. “A Case of You,” a Joni Mitchell composition, begins with a guitar intro followed by Adia in typical Mitchell fashion which Adia shapes to suit her own style.
This is a fine first effort from a promising young singer who can belt out a song with the force of an Ella Fitzgerald and the sophistication of a Sara Vaughn. Not a bad combination of pipes and pizzas to be compared to. As for the music, it’s just not jazzy enough. The disc is basically pop in style tinged with a hint of jazz but not quite enough to qualify as jazz. Adia’s singing is not the issue, the instrumentation and song selection could be improved. Jazz music without the basic jazz instruments like the saxophone, trumpet and trombones is hard to sell. Adia needs to dump the guitar add the reeds and other wind instruments and select some time-honored jazz standards to sing to if she wants to make inroads in the jazz scene. I would love to hear her sing in front of a traditional fifteen to twenty piece big band. As a pop singer, she’ll have no problem.
CD: Blue Skies
Label: Self Published
Year: 2006
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