Thank you very much, Ivan Rod / GAFFA (major Danish Musicmagazine)!
5 STARS on the releaseday! 🙏🎶⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ to the new album, The Song Is You, feat. Gilad Hekselman & Kirk Knuffke.
Here is a link to it in Danish https://gaffa.dk/anmeldelse/148338/anmeldelse-stilsikkert-smukt-vokaljazzalbum/
Below is also a photo of it.
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Here is a translation in English:
Lilly: The Song Is You
REVIEW: Stylish, beautiful vocal jazz album
GAFFA
Album / Challenge Records
Release D. 26.03.2021
Reviewed by
Ivan Rod
When Danish/Japanese singer-songwriter/jazz composer and vocalist Lilly-Ann Hertzman released her fourth album, Tenderly, in 2017, it was to overwhelming applause. Critics on several continents deservedly praised her to the skies for the duo album, which featured standards and a collaboration with Israeli/American jazz guitarist Gilad Hekselman.
On her new album, The Song Is You, she is heard again collaborating with Gilad Hekselman, but now also with American cornetist Kirk Knuffke. Again with a simple expression, again with material that consists predominantly of American standards. And again-again with mature gravity, sensuality and character. It's as if Lilly, along with Hekselman - and now Knuffke - has found an authenticity, intensity and nerve that suits her, the songs and the music. The Song Is You is immensely successful for the same reason. Another small work (in a series of releases that should not be put to rest. May Lilly and Hekselman continue their collaboration for many years to come).
The new album features a single song of its own, "Five Wild Geese," which is bold and thoroughly beautiful, and which suits all the other songs from the Great American Songbook with its refreshing pulse. But also noteworthy are Lilly's versions of songs like Victor Young and Ned Washington's "My Foolish Heart," Richard Rodgers' and Oscar Hammerstein's "It Might As Well Be Spring" and Duke Ellington's "Prelude to a Kiss," and indeed of the old British/Scottish folk song, "Scarborough Fair" (immortalized by Simon & Garfunkel in 1968).
Lilly-Ann Hertzman has an incredibly good and seemingly natural grip on the songs/ballads. It's as if they are part of her own musical DNA. As if their swing leans on her own swing. As if her voice is made for them or vice versa. And it's as if her collaboration with Gilad Hekselman is a perfect match. Her warm vocals sneak up on his string playing easily and beautifully. And now, Knuffke's tone as well.
Considering that the entire album was recorded in just one day in New York, one has to take off one's hat and admire the musicality and virtuosity of the three, their respective, innovative starting points and their ability to work together when the record button is activated.
