Jazz still has some risk-taking singers like
Jeri Brown, who doesn't spend all of her time providing predictable, knee-jerk versions of overdone warhorses. There isn't a warhorse to be found on
The Image in the Mirror: The Triptych; everything on this CD was written or co-written by pianist Milton Sealey.
Brown (who is joined by Sealey on piano,
Avery Sharpe on bass, and
Grady Tate on drums) has never been a clone artist -- even her interpretations of standards have sounded personal. And on this album, she uses Sealey's attractive post-bop melodies to make personal statements. This is a highly introspective CD, although it's also quite accessible -- for
Brown, introspective doesn't mean going out of her way to be abstract. Those who complain about all the
Vaughan and
Fitzgerald clones who are so unadventurous and predictable in their choices of material owe it to themselves to give
The Image in the Mirror: The Triptych a close listen. ~ Alex Henderson