Talk about a Velvet Voice...

I'm not a huge fan of vocal jazz as a genre. I find that, as in all genres, there's too much me too and too little me. But when the singer has a distinctive voice, when the arrangements are interesting, then you can have something really worthwhile. Holly Cole is such a voice, although I understand that in recent years she's moved away from jazz and - sadly in my opinion - has joined the ranks of the millions of female pop singers that plague our airwaves, only marginally more interesting than the male pop singers ;-)

Old Grumpy comments aside, I didn't find much in terms of interesting live stuff from Holly Cole, so here's a music video of I Can See Cearly Now from her album Don't Smoke in Bed, probably her best album in my opinion. Though there's a touch of strings that I could do without (mostly on this song actually), Don't Smoke in Bed works because of the sparse accompaniment of double-bass and piano, and because Holly Cole's voice is, let's face it, not only divine, but her own. The fact that Howard Levy backs her on a couple of tunes doesn't hurt for the enjoyment either...

 

Comments

[Daniel Cabana]

Live, she is a hot voice in a hot Lady. I saw her twice signing her older material. I didn't check what she does now. Maybe she's more pop but I'll still have the memory of what she did best. It will always be truer than many young singers. She is every song she sings!