Album Review
Canadian-born jazz vocalist Amy Cervini shows her youthful innocence or experience in love and regret on this set of tunes that displays a balance of wisdom and naïveté. She possesses a strong, girlish, fluid, and distinctive voice, avoiding the hazard of overemphasizing lyrics or acting far too cute. Attractive, bordering on a temptress, and open to new possibilities, Cervini sings songs on this, her second album, that are set apart from the traditional American popular stage show style, using source material from a variety of pop and rock songwriters, retaining a playful yet winsome emotional content. There are also times when she fully adopts the barroom chanteuse image effectively without the sleaze or loungey, loose-gal trappings. Her trio, led by keyboardist Michael Cabe and complemented by bassist Mark Lau and brother/drummer Ernesto Cervini, navigates these original tunes faithfully with nary a hint of pompousness or forced servitude. The opening song penned by Blossom Dearie, "Bye Bye Country Boy," depicts the end of a warm rural fling — sweet, memorable, and as nice as an amicable waltz can be, with help from guest tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm. Where title track — borrowed from the Cardigans — takes this convoluted sentiment internally as a tango with the quartet String Nucleus and the rounded bass clarinet of Marty Ehrlich, vocalist Cervini's take on the standard "Comes Love" waits with quiet anticipation in typical come-hither fashion. Nellie McKay's "I Wanna Get Married" concludes the group of committal/noncommittal songs, sporting bluesy lyrics referring to domesticated references of Leave It to Beaver, a golden retriever, a white house, and packing lunches for my Brady bunches. "Good Riddance" is a modification of the familiar tune done by Green Day, flooded in a cascading 7/8 piano waterfall spirit song; "Quand Je Marche" is an older-sounding French number from the songbook of Camille Dalmais, updated with accordion by Ernesto Cervini and the deft bass of Lau; and Amy's demure singing on Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence" is contrasted by energetic handclaps and the grooving Fender Rhodes electric piano of Cabe. Furthering the diversity of this set is the African drumming c*m funk and joy heard on rocker Jack Johnson's "Upside Down," with some carefree scat and "la la las"; Ehrlich's deep bass clarinet signifying the ominous mood of the Cervini siblings' original "Lonely Highway" in tandem with Lau; and the cheating-heart cowboy blues three-step of Willie Nelson's "Sad Songs and Waltzes." As attractive as her voice is, Amy Cervini avoids all self-indulgences that more experienced vocalists tend to use as crutches. There's an honest, self-assured, and honey-dripping presence clearly heard, one that should bode well on her future projects — and this is a good entry point for sure. ~ Michael G. Nastos, Rovi
