Songs I Wrote or Wish I Did

Silvano has come a long way in terms of her ability to sing. She's inherently a risk taker, stretching her voice like Silly Putty into more operatic, stratospheric howling tones on occasion. For the most part though she displays a very good range of verbal motion and expresses lyrical content in attractive, clear, and precise diction. Husband Joe Lovano makes cameo appearances on tenor sax, while the core band of organist Larry Goldings, guitarist Vic Juris, bassist Essiet Okun Essiet, and drummer Victor Lewis comprise a band as good as it gets these days. The majority of these cuts are songs Silvano did not write, but they are interesting and utterly unique choices. "Sad & Blue" finds her quizzically happy, while Bob Dorough's good swinger "Without Rhyme or Reason" is very well done by all, and a highlight. "I Love Music" is taken in an atypically mysterious mood, speaking of music and beauty in a reverential, positive stance contrasted by the spacey guitar of Juris. Silvano is an adept ballad singer as evidenced on Abbey Lincoln's "When Love Was You & Me," the voice-guitar duets on Jim Hall's "Something Tells Me," the little ditty "If I'm Lucky," and freebased version with Lovano and Juris on "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing." The other five tracks are Silvano's written doing. "Make It Classic" uses a punchy tick-tock beat under staggered voice and guitar unison about classic things and music as opposed to disposable society. "Hey Boy" is a funky tune with Silvano's overdubbed voice, while "You're My One" turns a hot samba for hubby (sans Lovano) into a scattish bridge. Going over the aforementioned top, Silvano's voice pushes wilder outer limits as Goldings jams out on the scat-guitar unison based "Listen to This," while triple vocal-sax-organ unison lines inform the suggested samba "Climbin' the Peak." Silvano's best work probably lies ahead, but this one is leaps and bounds beyond previous efforts, and shows her growing and maturing as a singer and performer of wit, depth, and substance. She's no lounge act or cabaret diva, and that's good for her individualistic soul. ~ Michael G. Nastos, Rovi