APRIL VARNER

WINTER SONGS VOL. 2.

Cellar Music

April Varner, vocals; Luther Allison, piano/arranger; Yasushi Nakamura, bass; Ulysses Owens Jr., drums/producer; Leandro Pellegrino, guitar; Theo Bleckmann, vocal producer/arranger.

Rising star jazz vocalist and winner of the 2023 International Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition, April Varner offers us a full-length holiday album full of songs we know and love.

She has chosen songs that refresh childhood memories and her lifelong love of the season.  This is a follow up album to her outstanding recording of “Winter Songs Vol. 1. That featured her with the Emmet Cohen Trio.”

On this follow-up holiday album she has a new ensemble accompanying her and a fresh group of holiday songs.  They open with “Jingle Bells,” featuring the Sunhouse Singers who add lovely harmonics to the arrangement.  The first thing I notice are the artistic and inventive arrangements for these familiar tunes.

A tune called “Holly Jolly Christmas” is full of joy and April Varner’s voice floats like a John Coltrane saxophone above the plush rhythm arrangement.  The group swings “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” with gusto. Also, her rendition of Chuck Berry’s “Run Run Rudolph” shows us how strong Luther Allison is on his rhythmic piano.

This album is produced by Ulysses Owens Jr., an amazing drummer. It features Luther Allison on piano and Yasushi Nakamura on bass.  To add punch and excitement to this wonderful rhythm section, they add guitarist Leandro Pellegrino, as well as the vocal trio who call themselves, The Sunhouse Singers.  I found one ‘live’ tape of April Varner with Allison at the piano keys that features her amazing ability to scat sing on the very popular jazz tune “I Remember April.”

On this current and new album release, April Varner continues her rise in the jazz singer community with “Winter Songs Vol. 2.” Her love of the season and awesome interpretations of some favorite holiday tunes endears this young vocalist to me. Because of her crystal-clear vocals, her ability to swing, her on-the-money interpretation of jazz in a fresh unique way, April’s vocal scat abilities and her genuine emotional delivery, she offers the world a package of music to enjoy year after year. This album shows why April Varner won the 2023 International Ella Fitzgerald Jazz Vocal Competition.  She is one of jazz music’s promising and heartfelt new voices on the horizon.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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