Jazzkia

Album Review

After embracing high-tech acid jazz and club music on her previous releases, Saskia Laroo offered her first straight-ahead acoustic jazz recording with Jazzkia. The CD's liner notes, written by tenor saxman Teddy Edwards, don't actually describe it as a Miles Davis tribute, but that's what it basically is. Playing in a soft, subtle, Davis-like fashion and often muting her horn, the Dutch trumpeter embraces two songs from Davis' ultra-influential Kind of Blue ("So What" and "Blue in Green") as well as various pop and jazz standards he recorded in the 1950s, including "My Funny Valentine," "'Round Midnight," "But Not for Me," and Sonny Rollins' "Doxy." This isn't a bad album, but it's definitely a conventional one — and it's an album in which Laroo is content to emulate Davis' playing without bringing anything distinctive to the table. One hoped that Laroo, whose competent support includes pianist Albert Sarko, bassist Jos Machtel, and drummer Martin Van Duynhoven, would offer something more personal on future recordings.