LIZ COLE

I WANT TO BE HAPPY

Independent Label

Liz Cole, vocals; Larry Koonse, guitars; Otmaro Ruiz & Jacob Mann, piano; Darek Oles, Edwin Livingston & Jonathan Richards, bass; Jackson Irvine, vibraphone; Aaron Serfaty, drums.

Liz Cole opens with a straight-ahead, swinging arrangement of the title tune, “I Want to be Happy.”  It begins with her voice dancing brightly over the drums of Aaron Serfaty.  Her vocals sashay across the melody of “Mean to Me” with Darek Oles takes a noteworthy bass solo.  Otmaro Ruiz brings the blues into the arrangement on his piano. Liz Cole sings these lyrics with much emotion, and I believe her.

She introduces me to an old song that she’s made brand-new called “You’re Sensational.”  It’s the Cole Porter song that Frank Sinatra crooned to Grace Kelly in the movie “High Society.”  Cole has borrowed a few of Ella Fitzgerald’s trademark vocal licks during this arrangement, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Liz Cole has her own trademark sound and it’s pleasant and compelling.

This is an album that features the soothing vocals of Cole interpreting two hands full of great jazz standards, mostly her favorite songs.  Her rendition of the Eubie Blake, Andy Razaf, & John Finke tune, “I’d Give a Dollar for a Dime” is a sweet reminder of another era of music.  Liz Cole brings this old song alive with fresh breath. I enjoy the mallets of Aaron Serfaty that soften the arrangement of “Love” composed by George Bruns and Floyd Huddleston, snipped from the 1975 animated Disney film of Robin Hood, enhanced by Serfaty’s Afro-Cuban groove.

Her duet with Larry Koonse is sweetly performed on the Brazilian tune “Tu” by Jorge Drexler. During this presentation Liz Cole sings in Spanish. She introduced me to an Erroll Garner song with great lyrics by Elizabeth Cole called “Things to do (Passing Though)” where Cole shows off her natural ability to ‘swing.’

Every song unwraps like a perfectly packaged Christmas present.  The polished wrapping is colorful, joyful, with a wonderful surprise inside represented by Liz Cole’s delightful vocals.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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