Juno Award-winning singer/musician Bria Skonberg’s new album, Indigo, is a companion piece to her recent release, Brass, which centered on her trumpet playing. Indigo is focused on her equally impressive vocals with a collection of mostly standards in crystalline orchestrations that highlight and enrich her supple, gentle, intelligent phrasing and her pleasingly smoky sound. It is always a treat to hear a musician apply their musical artistry to singing, informing each song with melodic invention that, at the best of times, illuminates the lyrics and storytelling in unique and exciting ways.
Her collaborators on the project are first-rate, starting with multi-Grammy Award-winner Gil Goldstein who arranged and serves as pianist. Add to that Eric Wheeler on bass, Darrian Douglas on drums, Antoine Silverman and Entcho Todorov on violin, Yuko Naito-Gotay on viola, Emily Brausa on cello, with Kathleen Nester on alto flute and Charles Pillow on bass clarinet and the accompaniment throughout is exquisite.
An insistent, breezy wave of delight, “Watch What Happens” (Michel Legrand, Norman Gimbel) opens the album and affords the singer a chance to engage into some fine and fancy-free scat as only a horn player can provide. With an unspoken tribute to trumpeter Clifford Brown (and his classic pairing with Sarah Vaughan) she includes “I’m Glad There Is You” (Jimmy Dorsey, Paul Madeira) and follows it with another brilliantly realized acknowledgement of trumpeter Miles Davis with “Mood Indigo” (Duke Ellington, Barney Bigard, Irving Mills), including a bit of her own horn playing for good measure.
A full-fledged trumpet solo by the singer highlights “Between the Devil and Deep Blue Sea” (Harold Arlen, Ted Koehler), cushioned by Goldstein’s sparkling piano and the swinging percussion of Douglas on drums, all in service to Skonberg’s smokey, understated vocal that proves as at home in swing as it is throughout the album. Even more evocative is her voice on “If You Go Away” (Jacques Brel, Rod McKuen) maintaining her gentle, conversational tone while imbuing it with a desperation and pain, strengthened by the gallic underpinning of Goldstein on accordion and Brausa’s plaintive cello. The somber mood remains with a moving statement of Sting’s “Fragile” that is a haunting jewel, highlighting Wheeler’s bass with Skonberg’s trumpet and passionate vocal.
The singer’s original, “So It Goes,” first appeared as an instrumental on the Brass album but is here as well, with lyrics by Ann Hampton Callaway—and a sparkling new standard is born. Beautifully arranged by Goldstein, “Tell Him I Said Hello” (Jack Canning, William E. Hagner) is a standout on the album. It was first recorded in 1955 by Betty Carter with Ray Bryant, and later covered by Linda Ronstadt in her standards phase, but it well and truly belongs to Skonberg now. The singing, the horn playing, and the orchestration are all stunning.
The taste, the intelligence, the vocal elegance, and the classic musicianship of the entire project are showcased in the closing number, “We’ll Be Together Again” (Carl T. Fischer, Frankie Laine) that solidifies the impression that grows throughout the recording that Bria Skonberg is a great singer and a champion of the Great American Songbook, and Indigo is all the proof anyone would need to agree.
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“Indigo,” co- produced by Matt Pierson and Bria Skonberg; engineered, mixed and mastered by Christopher Allen; released by Cellar Music Group.
Gerry Geddes, critic for BistroAwards.com, is an award-winning director, writer, teacher, performer, lyricist, and a contributor to the podcast Troubadours and Raconteurs. He conceived and directed the acclaimed musical revues Monday in the Dark with George (Bistro and MAC Award winner), Put on Your Saturday Suit—Words & Music by Jimmy Webb, and Gerry Geddes & Company (in its five-year residency at Pangea). He has directed singers André De Shields, Darius de Haas, Helen Baldassare, and Lisa Viggiano. He has been active in the cabaret world for over five decades and has produced numerous CDs; his lyrics have been performed and recorded here and in Europe. Gerry’s workshop, The Art of Vocal Performance, is regularly offered to singers of all levels. His memoir of life in NYC, Didn’t I Ever Tell You This?, was recently published and is available at barnesandnoble.com. He is currently at work on his first novel.
