Album Review: Gemini from Adrianne Duncan

Album:  Gemini
Artist:  Adrianne Duncan
Label:  Self-Released
Websites:  https://www.adrianneduncan.com
https://linktr.ee/adrianneduncanmusic

Gemini, the new release from pianist, singer, composer, and arranger Adrianne Duncan, is an after hours elixir, consisting of four original tunes written by Duncan and closing with her reimagination of Sting's pop hit "Roxanne."  Duncan's background in classical music and jazz vocals shine through in her performance, integrating an innovative choreography among the musicians.  The tracks are beautifully nuanced in Duncan's glistening keys and Nick Mancini's reverberating chimes as the silky inflections of her vocals give the melodies a prismatic flare, held together by drummer Jimmy Branly and bassist Dan Lutz.

Duncan crafts a sweet balance between scripted verses and improvised excursions in "He's Not Quite You," featuring the entwining twinkles of Mancini's vibraphone.  The melody develops incrementally, opening with the scrupy drizzle of the bass and keys and building up momentum, intensifying the tempo into a stream of rapturous flourishes that lifts the listener into the stratosphere of sheer elation.  The title track courses a new path with a bopping beat in the undertow, incentivizing clarinet player John Tegmeyer and flutist Katisse Buckingham to engage in a whirlwind of improvisations with the whistling flusters of their respective instruments, forming a matrix of twizzling tresses.  

"Home at Last" pervades a somber mood as Buckingham's flute flutters gently around Duncan's vocals.  The lyrics describe a sorrowful image as Duncan observes, "She remembers when she met him / temples gray and full of wisdom / Things were so different then / She never doubted him / Now through the clarity of reckoning / She teaches love is merely flattery... she sits alone upon a throne / At a deep and bitter end / The cabinet reminds her that the life she knew is dead."  The interlude in the track is helmed by the innovative choreography of the keys and flute shooting and tangling, producing a ball of energy that withdraws into a somber wail.  Duncan's reimagination of "Roxanne" is a sweltering mix of languid strides in the keys and bass as her vocals articulate each syllable, stretching out her resonance and flexing a personalized touch that she applies to the melody.  Her rendition is simply innovative.

Adrianne Duncan gifts audiences with an after hours elixir.  The improvisations and melodic development of the tracks showcase her innovative leanings. Traversing the avenues between traditional jazz idioms and off-the-cuff excursions, Duncan masterfully helms the melodic course she embarks on in her release.

Musicians:
Adrianne Duncan - piano and vocals
Nick Mancini - vibraphone
Dan Lutz - bass
Jimmy Branly - drums
Katisse Buckingham - flute and saxophone
John Tegmeyer - clarinet