Eugenie Jones - The Originals

(Open Mic Records, 2023)

Bandcamp

The Originals is an anthology of original compositions by singer and songwriter Eugenie Jones drawn from her previous recordings, Black Lace Blue Tears (Open Mic Records, 2013), Come Out Swinging (Open Mic Records, 2015), and Players (Open Mic Records, 2022). This collection consolidates Jones’ decade of writing, recording, and performing her sensual and muscular brand of contemporary jazz.

Confident and tender, carnal and loving, Jones’s songs run a range of emotions, from the knowing vulnerability of “All The King’s Men” to the playful sexuality of “Sweet Summer Love” through the silky vamp of “Red Dress” to the inevitable devastation of “One More Night To Burn.” Jones shows she can sing with delicacy or grit, whichever is called for. Her voice is warmly, humidly pliant with a deeply sensuous center that she uses expressively with greater validity and genuineness than most better-known singers.

It is a mystery that Jones is not better known. Her vocal chops have few peers, and her writing is beautifully grown up and real. Jones's choice of support is notable by the presence of bassists Reggie Workman and Clipper Anderson, pianist Bill Anschell, and drummer Bernard Prudie. The Originals offer Jones a break from continual creation for reflection and horizon gazing, leaving us to wonder what exceptional music will follow.