I have heard nothing of her vocal coach, Martha Flowers, in years. She turned out a wonderful album with pianist Don Shirley many moons ago. Lois performs at jazz spots in North Carolina and Florida plus a string of festivals all over the east coast. Although somewhat restrained on this session, this young lady is certainly able to generate whitecaps on the beer in a club atmosphere. Gabe Evens' lyrical piano, the bluesy guitar of Scott Sawyer and the fine trumpet of Tom Brown combine to make this a most enjoyable experience.
Nobody does that anymore.
Kendra and the group kick it along at a great rate with wonderful feeling. The two CD package includes a nice booklet with complete personnel but unfortunately ignores the recording dates. Forty tunes by a single artist would seem too much for some collectors but in the case of Chris Connor, I'd like even more. The tunes were chosen by Chris Connor, now 71, and Will Friedwald. They each picked 40 tunes and then got together to narrow it down to 40 in total.