SUSAN HINKSON

JUST IN TIME

Windfall Creations

Susan Hinkson, vocals; Bruce Barth, piano/musical conductor/producer; Vicente Archer, bass; Adam Cruz, drums; Steve Wilson, alto saxophone.

Here is a jazz singer with a laid-back attitude who can swing. She sells the song while touching hearts. Susan Hinkson opens her debut album with a standard jazz tune that is often used to close out a nightclub performance, “One for My Baby” (and one more for the road).  Her band is tight and supportive. Susan’s musical conductor, pianist Bruce Barth, has written arrangements that are supportive and enhance her easy, stylized, jazzy voice.

Featuring her bassist, Vicente Archer, Hinkson sings the title tune with Archer accompanying her through the first sixteen bars of the tune. I am warmly introduced to Hinkson’s vocals.  When the other band members kick into gear, they put the “S” into ‘Swing.’  You can hear her shyness and vocal innocence on this, her first recording effort as a jazz singer.  Although she always loved music and grew up inspired by her mother, Margaret Jones, who was a musical arranger on Broadway, Susan took a different career path.

Hinkson chose higher education to become a regulator and policy maker for architectural real estate both for the city of New York and as the managing member in the Capalino Ventures, LLC urban strategy firm. Recording and performing songs from the great American Songbook is a brand-new thing for this vocalist.

“One day Bruce Barth said, let’s record. He put a band together. They gave me such great support. It became a collaboration. I realized I was in retirement mode, so here it is, my next chapter. Why not?” Susan Hinkson says in her press package.

Although I hear some trepidation in her vocal presentations, I think that is to be expected as she slips into shoes that are marching towards a completely new career. For the most part, her wonderful musicians support each arrangement and make the path smooth for her to enjoy the new and creative journey towards a music profession.

“I enjoy the quality of storytelling.  My mother would always tell me that the best singers weren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest voices but were the ones who spoke the words in a way that was clear and communicated well,” Hinkson shared.

When she sings “The Best is Yet to Come” she may be talking about this new direction in her life.

Hinkson has a natural understanding of ‘swinging’ a song arrangement and becoming a storyteller. I think if she finds an A-List vocal coach to give her some pointers on breath and tonal control, she can become a formidable jazz singer. Hinkson is a diamond in the rough. All she needs is a coach to polish her natural talent into a high luster.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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