Dawn Lambeth • I Get Ideas

Dawn Lambeth is a delightful singer who interprets vintage lyrics with a joyful delivery, swinging phrasing, and a gentle warmth. Her voice is quite appealing, her improvising is subtle while uplifting melodies, and she is one of the top swing-oriented vocalists around today.

I Get Ideas has Ms. Lambeth joined by a top-notch sextet consisting of trumpeter Danny Tobias, Jacob Zimmerman on alto and clarinet, pianist Chris Dawson, guitarist Luca Pino, bassist Sam Rocha, and drummer Josh Collazo. While all of the nine songs qualify as standards, none are performed all that often today. The first two selections, “Practice Makes Perfect” and “Please Be Kind,” are a bit reminiscent of Billie Holiday’s recordings with Teddy Wilson, particularly with Dawson hinting at Wilson and the performances’ general framework. However, Dawn Lambeth always sounds very much like herself. She infuses new life into such tunes as “You Are My Lucky Star,” “I Get Ideas,” a particularly happy rendition of “It Happened In Monterey,” and “Under A Blanket Of Blue.” Of the supporting cast, trumpeter Tobias is often the solo star, playing dramatically on “I Get Ideas” and showing throughout that he has mastered the art of making complete statements in a short period of time.

All swing fans will enjoy Dawn Lambeth’s I Get Ideas. The Northern California-based singer deserves to be much better known.

Dawn Lambeth • I Get Ideas
Self-Released
www.dawnlambeth.com

Scott Yanow

Since 1975 Scott Yanow has been a regular reviewer of albums in many jazz styles. He has written for many jazz and arts magazines, including JazzTimes, Jazziz, Down Beat, Cadence, CODA, and the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, and was the jazz editor for Record Review. He has written an in-depth biography on Dizzy Gillespie for AllMusic.com. He has authored 11 books on jazz, over 900 liner notes for CDs and over 20,000 reviews of jazz recordings. Yanow was a contributor to and co-editor of the third edition of the All Music Guide to Jazz. He continues to write for Downbeat, Jazziz, the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, the Jazz Rag, the New York City Jazz Record and other publications.