Jacqueline Tabor
The Lady in the Gown
Self-released
Northwest vocalist Jacqueline Tabor’s newest CD release, Lady in the Gown, is a pleasurable combination of grace, energy, and emotion. With confidence and a pleasing balance of somberness and sauciness, Tabor entertains us with her take on numerous jazz standard classics. She renders such classics as “On Green Dolphin Street,” popularized by Miles Davis, in a dulcet, melt-in-your-ears manner. While Billie Holiday took the song “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” and made it downtempo, slow and searing, Tabor makes the song her own and transforms it into a buoyant up-tempo piece backed up with a very self-assured bass.
Tabor is supported and complemented well by Greg Feingold on bass, Max Holmberg on drums, and Cole Schuster on guitar, a unit known as the 200 Trio. Tabor takes the same tack with “Autumn Leaves,” leaving behind the sad, slow renditions popularized by such artists as Nat King Cole and Chet Baker; instead, Tabor gives us a livelier piece with hints of wistfulness and ends on a satisfying and heartfelt high note. “Autumn Leaves,” along with other songs including “Tight,” “When Lights Are Low,” and “I Fall in Love Too Easily,” showcase Tabor’s talents but also allow the instrumentalists to shine through.
Tabor’s surprise is her own composition, the namesake of the CD, “Lady in the Gown.” Relating a jazz singer’s life, this song is jammed with an upbeat spirit of confidence. Tabor lets us know with pluck and humor that she “loves her music just like her man” and that she “rocks it like a queen that’s proud.” Tabor’s love of life and love of music sparkles and beckons through all her songs.
–Lucienne Aggarwal
