SOTTO VOCE - ROY NATHANSON
Here’s a resounding welcome back for Nathanson, whose “Sotto Voce” brims with a bemused exuberance and bubbles with a strange brew of spoken word, song and improvisation. “Sotto Voce” functions as a hip, lyrical variety show that at turns gets boisterous with instrumental soaring (snaky sax lines, Curtis Fowlkes’ trombone slithers, violinist Sam Bardfeld’s klezmer-shaded phrasings) and energized by the hip-hop and doo-wop-infused vocals of Napoleon Maddox.
Tunes range from Nathanson originals (the playful but poignant “By the Page” and the melodic beauty “Home”) to covers like the new-grooved rendering of Bobby Hebb’s 1966 soul hit “Sunny.” Like Nathanson’s spirited projects with the Jazz Passengers, which he and Fowlkes co-founded in 1987, “Sotto Voce” is jazz that stretches the art form. –Billboard
