Under a Painted Sky Judy Wexler
Can't quite put my finger on it. It's not something I can touch, or see, or feel. Not sure it's something I can hear. Maybe it's something I can't — or don't hear. There's something I'm listening for and don't hear. Judy Wexler has a clear high pitched voice, precise diction, and stylizes the lyrics with phrasing typical of many jazz vocalists. So it's not that.
Under a Painted Sky opens with an enthusiastic cover of "Wonderful Wonderful" that is so engaging that I almost forgot that Johnny Mathis covered it too. "And How I Hoped for Your Love" comes next and the first one-fourth of the album concludes with "An Occasional Man", which along with the opener are the highlights of the album for this reviewer.
Wexler has surrounded herself with some top notch musicians who provide another highlight of the project. Bob Mintzer on tenor sax leads the line-up that includes Alan Pasqua on piano, Dorek Oles on bass, Steve Hass on drums, Larry Koonse on guitar, Bob Sheppard on soprano sax, Walt Fowler on trumpet and flugelhorn and Alex Acuna with percussion.
The texture, feel, and delivery, even the production, feels sterile, too clean. It's like the bright white background on the cover photo — stark white, like the skin of the artist. It would be interesting to see if we had a different perception of the dozen tracks here had they been recorded live in a smoke-filled club, the rattle of ice cubes in a glass and the classic atmosphere of a dark jazz venue.
The last three tracks (including a cover of "Till There Was You") lacked the enthusiasm and emotion of the first three and left us to ponder the question. How would it have been if k.d. lang or Queen Latifa covered these same twelve songs? Have either of them ever done any jazz vocals? Under a Painted Sky was our first hearing of Wexler's work and although her second album, Dreams and Shadows, earned rave reviews, we had high expectations that went unfulfilled.
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