The New Jersey Star Ledger

A great year for jazz lovers
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
BY ZAN STEWART
Star-Ledger Staff

DESPITE A marketplace where, genre to genre, CD sales continues to slump, this has been another banner year, aesthetically speaking, for jazz recordings. Here in the Top 10 listed in alphabetical order, there are established artists growing, or taking new tacks; new artists looking to break though, a few reissues by giants. With such solid albums, it is clear that, on some levels, jazz is thriving.

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Sasha Dobson: "The Darkling Thrush: with the Chris Byars Octet"

(Smalls)

The 25-year-old Dobson is a real jazz singer, one who sings as though she were an instrumentalist -- bending, squeezing, elongating each phrase, shifting the placement of lyrics, melodies, rhythms. Still, with all these liberties taken, she never loses the thrust of her material. Backed by a sumptuous octet led by tenorman, flutist and clarinetist Byars, Dobson wends her way engagingly through the tender "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry," the punchy "Who Will Buy?," the jackrabbit-paced "What is This Thing Called Love?"