Search - Rebecca Parris :: Love Comes & Goes

The idiom of Rebecca Parris songs

Julia Bassett | Norwich, VT United States | 11/02/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"An essential criteria by which we judge audio (and literary) entertainment is by the extent to which it creates the possibility of imagining other places, times, and characters through the music, perhaps yours, perhaps the artist's. Rebecca Parris satisfies this requirement and goes further, as if by both having known this experience or that feeling, you have a common bond with her.Especially today, where multimedia is being pushed at us more for commerce's as culture's sake and full blast everywhere we turn, an entertainer like Rebecca Parris is an anachronism in her ability to attract and hold the listener with nothing more than a voice (with all due respect to the very fine sidemen on this recording).This collection of tunes emphasizes Parris' extraordinary powers of communication through her instrument. The material represents the singer's strong romantic nature, using love as a theme and pure song as a form to test the boundaries of expression. Focused on delivering these messages, Parris eschews her secret weapons (get-down-girl scatting and you-never-heard-this-before improvisation) and loses nothing by taking such a risk. So confident is she that she can put across a song, she barely leans on her band at times, or converses only with bassist Peter Kontrimas.Love Comes and Goes is a tribute to song as an art form and Parris' self-assurance as a timeless jazz performer."