Rickie Lee Jones’ Pieces of Treasure is a covers collaboration with Russ Titelman, her lifelong friend and producer of her two most noteworthy albums, her 1980 debut, Rickie Lee Jones and Pirates. Even the title of this one is a purposeful nod to the latter. Jazz isn’t a new thing for Jones as most of her albums had a song or two in that style but this is her first fully rendered jazz effort. The studio alone, NYC’s Sear Sound, speaks to the serious nature of this effort as it’s the studio of choice for many of today’s most esteemed jazz artists, a core group of such that forms her backing quartet – Rob Mounsey on piano, guitarist Russell Malone, bassist David Wong, and drummer Mark McLean, all handpicked by Titelman.
The opening track and single song “Just In Time” features Mike Mainieri on vibraphone and Jones in her inimitable flirtatious, sexy, whispering style singing in her self-confessed sneaky approach. You’ll notice that her trademark phrasing remains pretty consistent even to her earlier albums, but her voice is deeper and more resonant. Only vague vestiges remain of the “little girl”/Blossom Dearie style. She scats on “One for My Baby,” accompanied in the last section only by David Wong’s bass. Ara Dinkjian, one of the world’s foremost oud players, joins the combo for “Nature Boy,” which she learned from her dad at the age of nine or ten. She swings gracefully on the Gershwins’ “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” featuring a gutty sax solo and sparling work from Malone and drummer Mclean. She drastically slows the tempo on Van Heusen and Cahn’s string-drenched “All the Way,” allowing clear articulation of the lyrics in this most sublime take, applying a similar aching treatment to “Here’s That Rainy Day” which is the best track here.
Even with “On the Sunny Side of the Street” which sparkles at a brisk tempo, she slows it down to a crawl, leading this writer to yearn for a more swinging version. The slow tempos are fine in doses but that novelty wears off quickly. More variations in tempo would likely work better. When we get to the closer “It’s All in the Game” it just seems that Rickie Lee is stuck in that molasses-like groove. She’s intent on being a torch singer and she’s damn good at it although it takes plenty of hutzpah to take on the Great American Songbook. Jones’ success in the pop genre allows her to take this route and she clearly puts her own stamp on these songs with a better job than other pop stars who have tried. You know those names.
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who is the “gutty” saxophonist?