Walking With Strangers
On this her best album, and only the seventh in 22 years, Marilyn Scott combines the high-tech production standards applied to her last two Warner Brothers records with a move back toward the classic 1970s jazz-soul sound that permeated her first four releases. The Perri sisters, once known simply as Perri, sound like the Emotions, a group of sisters from the '70s, on "Give In," and the exquisite Frank McComb, a Donny Hathaway clone, duets with Scott on a creative reworking of the standard "You Don't Know What Love Is." Instrumentally, there are great Brazilian grooves, and the Yellowjackets, who were recording with Scott even before their first record 20 years ago, add to the jazz fusion feel, as do George Duke and Ross and Joe Vannelli. Vocally, her words deal with romance, self-improvement, and social consciousness, and for her fourth straight album, there is a new Brenda Russell composition. The background harmony styles really stand out, because they vary so widely on each track. Scott is overdubbed several times to great effect on the opening track, the highly stylistic "Loving You," a tune on which Renato Neto does a great George Duke-like synthesizer solo.--Mark Ruffin