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| Jenny Evans's "Christmas Songs" released in October, 2005  Jenny Evans who describes early music as her first love, grew up in England where the tradition of going from house to house singing carols at Christmas is still alive. Long before starting her "Christmas Jazz Concert Series", Evans, an ex-pupil of Baroque specialist Trevor Pinnock, sang in the renowned London Heinrich Schütz Choir. In Munich, Germany where she has been living since the late 70s she was a member of the University Choir and the Münchner Motettenchor before starting her career as a jazz singer. Her warm timbre, her astounding timing and her numerous musical skills make her one of Europe's leading jazz vocalists. What makes her such a remarkable artist -- crossing borders and choosing her repertoire from other genres -- is that, as author, actress and studio speaker, Jenny Evans is a woman of words with a real, outstanding feeling for lyrics and their interpretation."Nuages", her successful 2004 album, was awarded the German Records Prize by a jury of critics. Music magazines described the recording as "one of the best vocal albums of the year" (Fono Forum), "a distinguished masterwork" (Jazzthetik), "a successful experiment" (Spiegel) and "jazz of remarkable elegance" (Rolling Stone). Bridging centuries and crossing stylistic borders in a "personal European Songbook", this album proved the singer's "superb maturity" (Stereoplay). With the same ability to mould diversity into a fascinating self-contained artistic statement, Jenny Evans now approaches Christmas carols of diverse origins. Her personal choice of "Christmas Songs" includes an American finger-snapping "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas", the Austrian traditional "Still, Still, Still" adding yodel and world music ingredients, an unexpected combination of "The Little Drummer Boy" and "Nature Boy", the dark balladry of "The Coventry Carol", her own English lyrics to a Czech traditional on "Lulla-Lullaby" and a "Blessed Be That Maid Mary" that is Latin in more ways than one. With a little help from her wonderful trio, Jenny Evans achieves an atmosphere of warmth and depth, intensity and subtlety -- just what you may expect from an honest and elegant Christmas album that comes from the heart and speaks to the heart. write your comments about the article :: © 2005 Jazz News :: home page |