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The total package
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This review first appeared in the January 19, 2006 issue of the North County Times.
Dominique Eade's bourbon-smooth brand of jazz is smart, sassy, seductive and sensual. Oops – did we forget sophisticated?
It's hard to think of another young jazz singer who's as complete a package as Eade. Harry Connick Jr., perhaps, although he doesn't have the supple vocals she uses like silk to wrap around your heart. Her timing is near perfect, with a hint of a pause that makes you lean forward in anticipation of her next note. Her tone is rich and sonorous, and while her range is only average she sure knows how to make the most of what she has.
And her songs are voluptuous. Originals like "Avenue A" and "Sometime Tonight" have gently undulating melodies and poetic lyrics – they're every bit as good as the covers of classics by Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Arlen and Sammy Cahn.
Finally, her band – Bruce Barth, George Mraz and Lewis Nash – just swings like crazy, and adds some superb solos to fill in the spaces between Eade's vocals.
This album is, like Eade herself, the total package.