May 1997

Carolyn Graye
Carolyn Graye
Pony Boy Records

By Sunsh Stein

Carolyn Graye composes, sings and plays piano on this self-titled release. She does them all well. This mix of mostly originals is enhanced variously with bass, drums, alto, soprano, trumpet and trombone. While the soprano gives a more contemporary jazz sound, this is a largely straight ahead effort with Graye giving a nod to Bird, adding lyrics to "Au Privave," and showing a nice bluesy feel in "Joey's Blues" and "Brother Ubert, Sister C."