criticaljazz.com
I have to admit as I have stated before, the female jazz vocal pack is a tightly knit group of talent with about the artistic differences between each as thin as a sheet of paper. Till now...
Take old school vocal jazz, a touch of caberet and a dash of Broadway and you have a nice receipe for a very entertaining release from Lisa Kirchner entitled Charleston For You. I was immediately taken by some of the talent listed on the release as well including straight ahead drumming phenom Adam Cruz and guitar virutuoso Ron Jackson so for the purist that wants to argue "credibility" then game over.
Kirchner's style may be part of the reason she has quietly slipped past a few critics and undeservingly so. A nice voice i.e. great chops, spot on phrasing and a nice somewhat eclectic set list here make Charleston For You an incredibly entertaining tour de force of how much room a vocal jazz artist has to work and still remain true to their own integrity. There are several Kirchner originals here that are as solid as they come including "Red Wine and White Lies" along with "Lights of L.A." Some of the more eclectic tunes that help bind this wonderful release together include a nice riff on a Janis Ian tune "Jesse" and of course a standard from George Gershwin "The Man I Love."
Kirchner really does not have a prime vocal wheelhouse from which she holds court. Instead, Kirchner has the talent and ability to work folk, jazz, and even French and Brazilian songs. An elegant vocal talent that could as a former co-worker from American Idol would say about certain talent - "She could sing the phone book."
The bottom line for Kirchner is simply this...she entertains! There is a certain old school charm about a talent that cares about making that connectivity while striving to push their talent to a variety of different levels.
An absolutely delightful release and arguably her finest release to date.
acousticmusic.com
Lisa Kirchner comes from the Toni Tenille / Olivia Newton-John / Paul Williams / Rita Coolidge / Judy Collins segment of the music world, encanting with a studied sonorous voice in Charleston for You, a collection of standard, self-penned, and other tracks cohered through their readings, the most affecting of which is a take on Janis Ian's Jesse. Aiding her is a rather impressive collection of well-known names: Tommy Mandel, Lonnie Plexixo, John Miller, Sue Evans, and quite a few others. Her handling of French, as in L'accordeoniste, may in fact be her strongest card, so much does she cut into a truly perfect reading of the language. Think Piaf.
There are quite a few mainstream tracks here, many of which would go well on radio, Lights of L.A. the strongest candidate either for soft jazz, adult contemporary, or The Wave type dial positions. Interestingly, no production credits are given for this disc, but whoever helmed the effort didn't steer the recording process as well as might have been desired nor quite push Kirchner to her limits (listen to the tail end of Lights if you want an illustration of just where her ace card lies—beautiful!). Thus, I suspect Lisa herself produced the CD…and shouldn't have, as musicians aren't often the best judges of their own strengths and weaknesses. That she has all the attributes necessary for a really solid outing is obvious, but that's not met here despite any number of very good passages. While certain parts are great, the sum of the whole is median, requiring either more woodshedding or better discretion on the technical end, probably both. (Mark S. Tucker)
