Lyambiko - Out Of This Mood (2009) 320kbps

One listen to “Out Of This Mood” and you’ll hear why Lyambiko, the group, is getting so much attention in their home base of Berlin and throughout Germany (and increasingly in the U.S.). Backed by a solid and experienced piano-bass-drum combo, Lyambiko, the singer (after whom the group is named), delivers strong, highly musical vocals throughout the disc, demonstrating excellent command over a wide stylistic range. While some of the tunes are no doubt evocative of classic singers that have come before, she’s clearly singing from deep in her own heart. The album’s familiar chestnuts and almost-forgotten gems hang together like a quick reference guide to vocal jazz. But this is no perfunctory encyclopedic exercise. Lyambiko’s voice is simply beautiful, and there’s deep emotion and much delicacy in the arrangements and ensemble playing whenever the mood demands.

Possessing an especially soothing tone, good phrasing instincts, a slight vibrato used judiciously, she shows her obvious like of and respect for classics written by Duke Ellington, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Frank Loesser and Jimmy McHugh, among others. Peppered through are such strictly jazz tunes as John Coltrane’s “Afro Blue” and a blues tune or two including a groovy “Miss Celie’s Blues”. One of the jazz tunes, Nat Adderley’s “Work Song”, gets A Capella treatment by the singer which showcases the purity and range of her awesome set of vocal chords and she ends this tune by reaching to the heavens with an astonishing high note which she seems to hold onto forever. Quite breathtaking.