DAPHNE ROUBINI AND BLACK GARDENIA

WHISKY SCENTED KISSES

Cellar Live Records

Daphne Roubini, vocals/bandleader/composer; Paul Pigat, guitar/arranger/composer; Stephan Nikleva, guitar/composer; Dave Say, saxophone; Brad Turner, trumpet/flugelhorn; Jeremy Holmes, bass.

Black Gardenia is among Vancouver, Canada’s most popular jazz ensembles.  It’s led (without drums) by singer/songwriter Daphne Roubini.  Ms. Roubini has one of those voices that crosses eras. It could be 1920 or 2026.  Her tone and phrasing, along with the arrangements of her band called “Black Gardenia,” reminds me of the past. At the same time, they are contemporary jazz. The sextet leaves the ‘swing’ to the rhythm guitar. Their song “How Do I Know” exemplifies how Roubini’s original music crosses eras and spans time.

Their opening song “Minor Mood” establishes Daphne Roubini as a stylist with a distinctive sound and approach to delivering her jazzy songs.

The group has been working steadily in and around Canada for some time.  Eleven years ago, Daphne Roubini showed her love for country/western music by recording “Cold Cold Heart” written by the legendary Hank Williams. Her voice embraces genres comfortably, like giving the listener a warm hug.

Every now and then, she plays ukulele on the bandstand.  Mixing genres, for example, by keeping a country flair to the standard song, “Till There Was You” originally plucked from the 1957 Broadway musical “The Music Man” to become a staple of early 60s pop-standards. Roubini makes it her own.

Then, on you tube I found her singing “All of Me” with shades of Billie Holiday brightly coloring her tone.

Getting back to her debut release on Cellar Live Records, she covers a tune called “There’s Always Tomorrow” written by Mimi Marlowe Jaffe when the composer was just nineteen years old. Who would have guessed this song would be discovered in her catalogue after her death at 91-years-old?  Roubini also covers “You Leave Me Breathless” and Irving Berlin’s tune, “This Year’s Kisses.”  Both songs are a vocal tribute to Billie Holiday, an obvious influence on this singer.

Daphne Roubini and her Black Gardenia band close this album with another original composition called “Who Stole the Moon?”  It celebrates vintage swing, that kicks in after Roubini’s rubato introduction. The tasty saxophone filler lines are perfectly placed and the swing-groove dances along, buoyed by the rhythm guitar and harmonious horn lines that lift the arrangement.

This vocalist and her Black Gardenia group have capsulized old elegance and traditional jazz in a package of carefully picked repertoire and selective original music. Led by Daphne Roubini’s infectious vocals, this is a sound you won’t soon forget.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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