Album Review: If Love Were All from Wayne Powers

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Album:  If Love Were All
Artist:  Wayne Powers
Label:  Kabockie Records
Website:  www.waynepowers.com

Blues crooner Wayne Powers sings the praises of love found and pines over love lost on his latest offering If Love Were All from Kabookie Records.  Each track is a dreamy swinging tune with his caressing vocals sweeping across the melodic musings of Keith Davis on piano, Ziad Rable on tenor saxophone, and Al Sergel on drums.  His tenor register is aurally pleasing to listeners as he traipses through a selection of jazz standard favorites.

The warmth he projects in his interpretation of "Body and Soul" lulls the listener into a dream state as Davis's keys blanket the melody in a downy bedding.  The pathos in Powers's vocal nuances inject genuine emotion into Billy Strayhorn's timeless ballad "Lush Life," whisking the listener away as Rable's saxophone bastes the melody in slow simmering swells. The sensitivity Powers displays in his treatment of the lyrics in the 1931 nostalgic tale "When Your Lover Has Gone," penned by Einar Aaron Swan, is positively conciliatory. The suave glide of his vocals coos and soothes the listener's senses, offering empathy to broken hearts.  His timbres vibrate at a temperature that acts as a balm on human emotions.

A jazz vocalist, voiceover artist, and radio personality, Wayne Powers proves his proficiency as a moving singer.  Endowed with a voice that feels good on the senses, Powers shows a flair for creating intimacy with audiences as he takes them along a comfy course that puts them in a dreamy state of mind.

Musicians:
Wayne Powers - vocals
Keith Davis - piano
Ziad Rable - tenor saxophone
Al Sergel - drums


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