Jenny Davis, It Amazes Me

by Constance Tucker
Davis has forged her craft as jazz vocalist, the old fashioned way through her exploration as a performer, composer, producer and educator. Through years of hard work and study, Davis has culminated her sophomore release, It Amazes Me. Davis is clearly at the top of her game. Together with acclaimed jazz artists, Chuck Easton and George Radebaugh, she has found the balance of songs and styles that showcase their collective talents, blending beautiful arrangements and post-bop compositions, while adding new freshness highly recognizable jazz standards, this release adds up to a stellar vocal presentation that truly exhibits Davis as a competent and skilled technician.

It Amazes Me is an adventurous recording, Jenny’s vocals fuse with inspired solos by Easton, Radegaugh and Willy Ingersoll, creating and complex improvisations that highlight her voice as a technically superior instrument. Davis invites the listener to explore the music much in the way of an instrumentalist. To delve inside the vibrant bebop standards that is usually performed instrumentally such as Clifford Brown’s “Joy Spring” and Charlie Parker’s “Scrapple from the Apple”.

From the poignantly tender title track “It Amazes Me” to Duke Ellington’s hard swinging “It Don’t Mean a Thing (if it ain’t got that swing)” Davis takes the listener on an exploration of vocal heights and emotional depth that few vocalists have the heart, or talent, to traverse. Davis is a true jazz vocalist who displays chops with pleasing vocal quality. Jenny learned her chops under the tutelage of renowned jazz vocalist, Beth Winter, and other greats such as Jay Clayton, Sheila Jordan, Hadley Caliman, Randy Halberstadt, Chuck Deardorf, Jim Knapp and Julian Priester. Davis graduated cum laude from Cornish College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Arts in Music, where she was awarded the coveted Maggie Hawthorne scholarship.

Davis is a welcome addition to the history of jazz vocalist with a true offering to bring to the table.

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