JACINTHA - Lush Life (2001) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

This is Jacintha's third album for Groove Note, and her first with strings. Very popular in her native Singapore, she's beginning to get a worldwide reputation, and this release demonstrates why: Her voice is lovely, with clear diction and expressive, naturalistic phrasing. She draws the listener into a warm intimacy from the first track, "The Boulevard of Broken Dreams," a rarely covered and beautiful song with the perfect "rainy night in Paris" ambience supplied by Frank Marocco on accordion. Other highlights include a bluesy but refreshingly non-wailing "Black Coffee," with a fine, understated solo by Bill Cunliffe on piano; he's also good on the silky bossa "Manha de Carneval," where Anthony Wilson's melodic plucking contrasts nicely with the smoothness of the strings. Another unusual but happy choice, "When We Were Young," showcases the superb flügelhorn of Dmitri Matheny, which enhances four other tracks as well. Eight of the ten selections are ballads and, since Jacintha delivers her message straight and serene, the overall feel is quiet, sultry, and relaxing. After slooow readings of "The Shadow of Your Smile," "Lush Life," and "September Song," Joe LaBarbera's brushes and drum accents on "Harlem Nocturne" provide a welcome texture and pulse. The surprise of the CD is the startlingly original, soaring introduction to the vastly overplayed "Summertime," where Cunliffe's string arrangement evokes both Gershwin and modern French composers. This is excellent late-night listening; the local male vote was "mesmerizing."  by Judith Schlesinger 
Tracklist :
1   The Boulevard of Broken Dreams 4:55
Al Dubin / Harry Warren 
2  Black Coffee 6:39
Sonny Burke / Paul Francis Webster 
3  Summertime 6:13
George Gershwin / Ira Gershwin / DuBose Heyward 
4  Lush Life 6:19
Billy Strayhorn 
5  Manha de Carnaval 6:10
Luiz Bonfá / Antônio Maria 
6  The Shadow of Your Smile 5:12
Johnny Mandel / Paul Francis Webster 
7  When the World Was Young 8:23
Johnny Mercer / Michel Philippe-Gérard / Angele Vannier 
8  September Song 5:09
Maxwell Anderson / Kurt Weill 
9  Harlem Nocturne 6:20
Earle H. Hagen 
10  Smile 2:18
Charlie Chaplin / Geoffrey Parsons / John Turner 
Credits :
Bass – Darek Oles
Drums – Joe Labarbera
Accordion – Frankie Marocco (tracks: 1) 
Cello [Celli] – Peggy Baldwin, Rudi Stein
Flugelhorn – Dmitri Matheny (tracks: 1, 7, 8)  
Guitar – Anthony Wilson (tracks: 1, 6, 7, 9) 
Harp – Amy Shulman
Piano, Arranged By [String Arrangements] – Bill Cunliffe
Viola – Marium Mayer, Reneta Koven, Virginia Frazier
Violin – Eddie Stein, Gina Kronstadt, John Wittenberg, Norm Hughes, Susan Chatman
Violin, Concertmaster – Peter Kent
Vocals – Jacintha

JACINTHA - Jacintha Goes to Hollywood (2007) SACD / APE (image+.cue), lossless

Let's face it: most people who are not seasoned jazz listeners aren't going to comprehend someone as challenging as the late Betty Carter. The best way to get people who are "jazzophobic" to start listening to vocal jazz is to expose them to artists who are quite accessible but still have taste and integrity -- people like Jacintha, whose Jacintha Goes to Hollywood is a perfect example of a jazz vocal disc that is very easy to absorb even if one isn't a seasoned jazz listener. This 2007 recording finds the Singapore native turning her attention to songs that were heard in well-known films, and her torchy, understated approach serves her well on material ranging from the Mamas & the Papas' "California Dreaming" (a '60s smash that was heard in the 1995 film Chung King Express) to the Doris Day-associated "Que Será Será" (which was used in Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1956) to Michel Legrand's "The Summer Knows" (from the 1971 film The Summer of '42). Technically, the title Jacintha Goes to Hollywood is inaccurate, because not all of these songs are identified with Hollywood films; Chung King Express, for example, is a Chinese film, and one of the best things on this album is an English-language performance of the gorgeous theme from the 1966 French film A Man and a Woman (or, as it is known in France, Un Homme et une Femme). Perhaps a better title for this 47-minute CD would have been Jacintha Goes to the Movies. But in the grand scheme of things, that is only a minor point. What matters the most is that Jacintha has delivered a musical tribute to movies that is as memorable as it is rewarding. by Alex Henderson  
Tracklist :
1 On Days Like These 5:31
2 Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head 4:58
3 Alfie 4:43
4 Windmills Of Your Mind 6:13
5 California Dreaming 5:40
6 A Man And A Woman 5:18
7 Easy Living 4:17
8 Que Será Será 5:09
9 The Summer Knows 5:23
Credits :
Bass – Darek Oles
Drums – Joe LaBarbera
Guitar – Anthony Wilson
Keyboards [Hammond B-3] – Larry Goldings
Percussion – Aaron Serfaty
Piano – Iskandar Ismail
Saxophone – Ricky Woodard
Trumpet – Ron Stout
Vibraphone – John Campbell
Vocals – Jacintha
Whistling – Howlett Smith