While no female vocalist will likely ever match Dinah Washington’s brilliance at blending jazz and blues, Barbara Morrison has come closest. At age 60, she continues to rival Washington’s beam-rattling slither and thrust, though on gentler selections there’s the enticing suggestion of Billie Holiday blended with the late-career majesty of Maxine Sullivan.
In 2005, Morrison teamed with tenor saxophonist Houston Person for a killer live recording at the Dakota in Minneapolis. At last reunited, they remain an ideal match, whether softly tracing the heartache of “I Cover the Waterfront” or emblazoning a Dinah-worthy reading of the title tune. Ably assisted by what Morrison refers to as her “automatic A team”-pianist Stuart Elster, bassist Richard Simon and drummer Lee Spath-the pair proves delightfully unpredictable across their 12-track playlist. They sandwich a swirling “Polka Dots and Moonbeams” between creamy treatments of “My Romance” and “(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons,” and offset a growly “I’m Just a Lucky So and So” with an oxymoronically propulsive “Soft Winds” and a deeply moving “Good Morning Heartache.” Most surprising, and delightful, is their transformation of deejay Jim Lowe’s mid-’50s novelty hit, “The Green Door,” into a sly, bluesy cooker in the spirit of Morrison’s one-time boss Ray Charles.
Barbara Morrison: A Sunday Kind of Love
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