Valerie Joyce New York Blue

Valerie Joyce New York Blue on Hybrid SACD from Chesky Records

Blessed with a captivating, richly sonorous singing voice, Japan-born, Seattle-based Valerie Joyce recorded two albums for audiophile label Chesky Records in the 2000s. The first of them, 2005's critically acclaimed New York Blue, featured the young singer supported by a crack Big Apple jazz band: formidable pianist Andy Ezrin, alternating bassists John Hebert and Tim Lefebvre, and drum stalwart Gene Jackson. They are augmented on some tracks by the veteran session musician Lawrence Feldman's smoky saxophone.

Joyce's intriguing repertoire blends deft interpretations of well-known evergreens from The Great American Songbook ("Darn That Dream") with jazz standards (Miles Davis' "Blue in Green"), jazz-tinged R&B ("Fever"), rock (Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing"), and pop (The Beatles' "Golden Slumbers").