A fairly straight singer with a warm but cool voice,
Gloria Cooper
at times hints at
Maxine Sullivan
and
Shirley Horn
. The program on
Dedicated to You
is filled with superior obscurities taken from
Don Sickler
's
Second Floor Music
publications
Sing Jazz
Sing More Jazz
. Many of the songs, written by
jazz
musicians, received their recording debut (particularly as vocals) on this set, including numbers by
John Oddo
,
Hank Mobley
Jon Burr
Renee Rosnes
, and the late
James Williams
.
Cooper
does a fine job of adding warmth to the lyrics, also playing piano in the backup group, which on some numbers is a full sextet featuring excellent trumpet solos from
Sickler
, which only includes two
standards
among the dozen songs, shows that some fine new originals were written by
musicians in recent times, even if most remain unknown to the general public. Singers in need of fresh material are particularly recommended to explore this outing. ~ Scott Yanow