Next time, not so long between albums, OK?

by Jim Trageser
This review first appeared in Turbula in December 2006.

There are very few musicians who, when you open a package from the record label and upon opening the envelope see that name on the CD, it causes your heartbeat to race, causes you to get all nervous and excited like a teenager at their first concert.

Jazz singer Dominique Eade is in that group.

And she records so infrequently (and tours even less often) that the arrival of a new CD from her is utterly unexpected.

Which only makes the music on her new CD, her first in seven years, that much more alluring (and the sweats before you can pop it into the CD drive that much more effusive).

Eade has been best known among jazz fans as one of the most enchantingly expressive singers on the scene. With that gorgeous, supple voice of hers, she can wrap her pipes around your heart and have her way with it.

But some of the songs on her new album may begin to change her reputation into that of songwriter. "Go Gently to the Water" contains one of the most alluring melodies ever heard. "Series of One" is nearly as perfect, and "Home" is bound to become a standard: What musician wouldn't want to tackle such rare beauty?

Pianist Jed Wilson is a pleasant surprise – providing a sparse backdrop for Eade's singing, and proving himself nimble enough to keep up with her numerous and quick changes in direction without ever tripping or getting in her way.

Still, that voice remains a formidable instrument – one of the best going today. On covers of "Never Let Me Go" and "You Fascinate Me So," she seemingly bends the songs to her voice, bends the melodies to her will.

It is artistry of the highest order.

It is magic.