REVIEW
Jazz
Times, August 2004
REVIEWS vox
by Christopher Loudon
Love Is Never Out Of Season (OA2)
To the ever-growing roster of Seattleites with genuine
vocal sass, you can now add the name Laura Welland.
Surely, I’m assuming, the only song stylist to ever abandon a successful
engineering career to pursue music, Welland started out as a trumpeter,
switched to bass, then finally, midway though an instrumental recording
session, opened her mouth to sing. Result? As demonstrated a dozen times
on her debut album, Love Is Never Out Of Season (OA2), Welland’s
a little bit Blossom Dearie and a little bit Ann Hampton Callaway, with
feet planted firmly in both jazz and cabaret camps.
Supported by the sort of A-list trio you’d expect to (and often do)
find behind established stars – Billy Mays on piano (replaced for
three tracks by Larry Fuller), John Clayton on bass and Joe LaBarbera
on drums – Welland weaves a multicolored musical tapestry that stretches
from a dusky When I Grow Too Old To Dream to the bright, bouncy
title track. I’ll admit little fondness for her Be My Love
(a sentiment I blame less on her performance than on the tune’s clunky
grandiosity) but figure she more than makes up for it with a slow baked
I Got The Sun In The Morning and You’d Be So Nice To Come
Home To that hints at the combined smokiness of Julie London and Jeri
Southern.