It's a remarkable voice -- a soul-infused alto tinged with haunting echoes of the postwar jazz greats. For years its possessor, Robin McKelle, has inched closer to her inevitable destiny with the spotlight. Having shared stages with revered artists such as Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Terence Blanchard, Michael McDonald, Jon Secada and others, McKelle now assumes center stage with a debut solo album that exuberantly broadens the boundaries of retro-swing. Produced by trumpeter, arranger and clinician Willie Murillo (Brian Setzer Orchestra, Aimee Mann, LeAnn Rimes), Introducing Robin McKelle evokes the jazzy spirit of 1940's America, while retaining a contemporary edge that speaks of a new wartime. With its well-struck balance of potent swing and fearlessly sentimental balladry, the album heralds the arrival of a peerless interpretive artist.
Indeed, Introducing Robin McKelle finds McKelle breathing fresh life into classics many listeners thought they knew intimately. She transforms the Andrews Sisters' jaunty 1938 hit, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen," into an insinuating Latin jazz tune, replete with lip-puckering tango and salsa rhythms. McKelle's hard-swinging take on Dinah Shore's breakthrough 1940 hit "Yes, My Darling Daughter" is no less miraculous, its sassy vocals and Lindy-Hopping rhythms offset by a come-hither rhumba break. The irresistible tandem of McKelle's voice and Murillo's arrangements combine on the after-midnight ballads "Come Rain Or Come Shine" and "F.....
