Album Review: Nicole Zuraitis Releases New Album Of Her Latest Jazz with HOW LOVE BEGINS

Heigh Ho, dear lovely rainbow tribe, welcome back to Bobby’s CD sandbox where we offer our broken-down breakdowns of new music releases. So, strap in and get ready, as Bobby goes on the record ABOUT the record.

This week’s album entry in the BobbyFiles comes from FAB jazz chanteuse Nicole Zuraitis. “Now, wait just a rainbow minute there, Bobby!” We can hear you calling out to us in Times Square, “Didn’t you JUST review new music from Zuraitis, just a few short days ago?” Why yes, we did, and that lovely review can be found right here: Music Review: Grammy Nominee Nicole Zuraitis Releases Series Of Singles From Upcoming Album HOW LOVE BEGINS. But, as that headline implies, that wonderfully written love letter was for three tunes by the lady, and now that upcoming album has up and come out. For now, please allow Little Bobby to give you a few musings on the rest of the songs, and on the album as a whole. According to the press on the work, HOW LOVE BEGINS is 10 tracks broken into two essential themes - Oil & Water - five songs, each illustrating the old “opposites attract” inevitability of love. The rough with the smooth is the course of Nicole’s true love that gathers no mess … or does it? The messy parts of love are her deepest explorations on this album, which was initially inspired by beautiful photos by Spanish conservation photographer Daniel Beltrá of one of the great ecological disasters in human history - the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill, hence the oil & water theme.  “When I learned that the stunning works of art, with their swirling colors and perfectly placed hues, were actually aerial photographs of the most devastating oil spill in history, my heart sank,” she describes. “The irony was not lost on me. Just like a love that ends too soon, the common thread is that some of the most beautiful things in life can also be the most heartbreaking.” And so is the course of true love that gathers total loss.

Opening the album with THE GOOD WAYS (oil) and its bluesy sexy beats in the bass, thrumming along, and then the wail of her voice, which is the sexiest part of the song. The blues beats are danceable and Maya Kronfeld’s organ is both haunting AND super cool - Like, 1960s spy flicks cool. “Your type of crazy feels like oil on water, and that’s how love affairs begin.” But oil on water can only lead to heartbreak, and that’s the blues, my lambs. Cut number three, REVERIE (oil), is our fave of the oil section, as it is Nicole’s arrangement of the Debussy classic REVERIE, with her own original lyrics contemplating how the mind grows occupied with “undeniable whirlpools of fantasy.” The more atonal section in the instruments is the whirlpool - moving, disturbing and dangerous. LET ME LOVE YOU (oil) is written with heartfelt poetry in her lyrics, which are superb. A simple ballad with just guitar accompaniment, like a late-night singer in a club after hours, just singing with her guitar player, possibly riffing and making it all up as they go. Love! AM-I-RIGHT Bobby readers?

The water portion of the album begins with the slow, smooth jazz chanteuse-style love song TWO FISH. This is an homage to big-band-era jazz, where Louis Armstrong crooned in that rough but oh-so-tuneful voice of his. Here, Nicole does the crooning about 2 fish in the ocean finding each other. It bounces in the piano, bass, and drums support to her voice, then the long piano improv takes over and is oh, so cool. One can almost picture the lady at the mic, snapping fingers to this jive, as she wraps up the song on “how great the depth of their love.” The breathy, beautiful 20 SECONDS is most definitely rooted in Zuraitis’ experience of seeing the oil spill photos. Her words speak of having blinders and being underwater trying to breathe. This is the heartbreak of flowing further apart as flammable tears flow like (salt) water. 

For this album, Nicole Zuraitis has used deep imagery in the marriage of her words and music - sometimes swirling, sometimes flowing, sometimes rushing like the rapids, all in her endeavor to capture the highs and lows of love between those opposites that maybe should not have attracted in the first place, but who can resist? One could say the oil of her jazz mixes with the water of her words, in fact, we will say that and we will also say that NICOLE ZURAITIS - HOW LOVE BEGINS gets a very nice …

This one gets 4 Out Of 5 Rainbows

Pick Up This Latest By Zuraitis On Outside In Music

CREDITS & THINGS
mixed by Todd Whitelock
edited by Rich Lamb 
Mastered by Mike Piacentini
recorded live in studio at Sound on Sound, Montclair NJ

For more information, sheet music, and lyrics visit www.nicolezmusic.com

Or www.bio.site/nicolezmusic 

Nicole Has A Super Cool YouTube Channel: HERE

Press Photos by Matt Baker Photography

NICOLE ZURAITIS - HOW LOVE BEGINS - Features:

Christian McBride on the bass, Gilad Hekselman on guitar, Maya Kronfeld on organ, Wurlitzer and Rhodes, and Dan Pugach on drums. The album also features special guests David Cook on piano, Billy Kilson on drums and Sonica – a co-led vocal trio comprised of Thana Alexa, Julia Adamy, and Zuraitis.

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