Patrice Williamson: Free to Dream

If Free to Dream (River Lily) is fair evidence, Patrice Williamson isn’t a singer, she’s a one-woman jazz sampler. Serving up a musical smorgasbord that extends from the art-deco urbanity of “Puttin’ on the Ritz” to the doe-eyed innocence of a Sound of Music medley (complete with a bouncy “Lonely Goatherd” that could happily share a hillside with Moe Koffman’s swingin’ shepherd), Williamson remains as stylistically eclectic as the songs she chooses. She soars, swoops and scats up a storm. One minute she’s swaying to the easy bossa beat of the self-penned title tune, the next she’s dishing up a gorgeous “With a Song in My Heart” seething with pent-up passion. Yet despite the album’s chameleonlike quality, Williamson never resorts to imitative tricks. She is a woman of many voices, each distinctly intriguing, all distinctly her own.

Originally Published November 1, 2002