Jacqui Naylor - Treasures Of The Heart
(Ruby Star Records, 2024)
It is the voice. That is obvious, Jacqui Naylor being a singer and all. Her range is solidly alto, even contralto, blunt yet pliant. Naylor’s voice contains the guarded innocence of Norah Jones, the deliberate experience of Kellye Gray, while covered in the hip, sexy slur of Rickie Lee Jones. Naylor’s beautifully sensual vocal approach to her material has not been heard since Cassandra Wilson last recorded seriously.
Treasures Of The Heart is Naylor’s twelfth recording, Her eponymous debut was released in 1999 on her own Ruby Star Records. the recordings in between reveal a spirited jazz talent with no fear of programming REM’s “Losing My Religion” right beside Don Raye and Gene de Paul’s “You Don’t Know What Love Is” or David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” against Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash’s “Speak Low.”
Naylor’s greatest advocate in her singing is pianist, arranger, (and husband) Art Khu who manages the arrangments for the singer, including the Afro-Cubano fueled “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” and the church-door, gospel breakdown of Cyndi Lauper’s “Ture Colors.” Burt Bacharach’s “This Guy’s In Love With You,” is fully transformed into a gentle jazz waltz with Naylor singing of the intoxication of love. Bassist Richie Goods, drummer Ele Howell, and trumpeter Erik Jekabson fill out the remainder of the band, all sensitive to the singer’s creativity. This is once in a once-in-a-generation singing talent.