Ineza with The Alex Webb & The Copasetics - Women's Words, Sisters' Stories (2024)

Women's Words, Sisters' Stories is a collection of songs that showcases female repertoire across the history of jazz, performed by an almost-all female cast. But what marks this release out from just another collection of female songwriters is the vocalist herself - rising star Ineza and her inspired selection of singers, songs and what she has to say.

Born in Rwanda, raised in Belgium and living in Kent, Ineza is a genuine jazz singer with a voice that is as graceful and elegant as it is soulful, powerful and urgent. She is a composer in her own right, fusing jazz's improvisational character with soul. She has a penchant for more adventurous, idiosyncratic stylists such as Abbey Lincoln, Betty Carter and Rachelle Ferrell, which, in part, informed her choice for many of the songs found on this collection. For this is an album that, she says, "champions the quirkiness of womanhood".

'Women's Words, Sisters' Stories' is the brainchild of pianist, composer, arranger and musical director, Alex Webb,who has, over the years, introduced us to some of the UK's finest jazz vocalists - Vimala Rowe, Cherise, Jo Harrop. Renowned for his love of swing and the virtues of the Great American Songbook, the album maintains a classic acoustic jazz sound. For 'Women's Words...' he introduces us to Ineza, a perfect collaborator - a classy singer with an enviable ability to emotionally connect with lyrics and who swings like hell! Webb has written a series of razor-sharp arrangements to showcase Ineza's agile, expressive voice.

'Women's Words, Sisters' Stories' comprises a varied selection of 9 covers of female-composed songs from American standards tocontemporary jazz works alongside one original by Webb and one co-write with Webb and Ineza.

For the album they are joined by some of the hottest young musicians on the London scene; Rosie Turton on trombone, rising tenor saxophonist Maddy Coombs, the J.A.M. String Collective , Charlie Pyne on bass (who 's own album, 'Nature Is A Mother' was released earlier this year to wide acclaim) and Canadian drummer Katie Patterson.