By Kerilie McDowall | Published July 2019
Colorful musings from guitar and piano take vocalist Cathy Segal-Garcia’s ethereal scatting into highly charged emotional territory, but the throaty vocalist often strains to reach her upper range with ease.
Tenderly supportive, Josh Nelson’s sinuous piano solos cascade chromatically alongside Larry Koonse’s gentle guitar arpeggios, sweeping up the opening of the Henry Mancini title track, where Segal-Garcia emotes as a dramatic translator.Vibrato on the baroque “Scarlatti Sonata In B Minor L33” seems standard, but overuse of rubato and vibrato doesn’t translate well on jazzier tracks, the interpretations often lacking inventiveness. The bandleader’s vocals are folksy while relating impassioned lyrics about sisterhood, separation and loss on her “The Three Of Us.” And with six slow-tempo tracks on the recording taking precedence, “Beyond The Years” extols the album’s reccurring lyrical theme of loneliness. Segal-Garcia’s emotional performance is bolstered by poignant guitar on the heartfelt “Canto Triste,” and the jazz waltz “Sometime Ago/Children’s Song” finds the vocalist scatting in scalar fashion while Koonse tastefully toys with dissonance and Nelson adds playful spice to the trio’s uplifting departure.
Dreamsville: Dreamsville; The Three Of Us; Canto Triste; Scarlatti Sonata In B Minor L33; September In The Rain; Lonely Woman; Zingaro; You Are There; Pensativa; Beyond The Years; Sometime Ago/Children’s Song. (55:44)
Personnel: Cathy Segal-Garcia, vocals; Larry Koonse, guitar; Josh Nelson, piano.
