Album Review: This Could Be The Start from Linda Purl

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Album: This Could Be The Start
Artist:  Linda Purl
Label: Reaching Records
Website:  https://www.lindapurl.com

Vocalist Linda Purl and her music director Tedd Firth come together for their fourth album, This Could Be the Start.  The collection contains Purl's reimagination of a handful of jazz standards, tailored to her vocal specifications.  Supported by an intimate cadre of musicians that include bassist David Finck, drummer Ray Marchica and reed player Nelson Rangell, Purl finesses a selection of Great American Songbook jewels with a contemporary sheen.

The playful merengue rhythm driving "Blue Moon," a swinging romp written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, is trussed in Ray Marchica's percolating percussion and a profusion of jutting keys performed by Ted Firth.  The track steps out of the customary schematics of swing jazz bolstered by blues vocals and articulates a Latin-imbued tremor.  The bossa nova curves shaping one of Cole Porter's signature pieces, "Dream Dancing," is fashioned by the squiggly spirals and feathery arcs of Rangell's reed as Purl brands the melody with a introspective glint.

Purl performs these tracks as though they exhume a special memory that she wishes to rekindle.  The listener can't help but feel that Purl grew up with this music, clenching her soul.  Her delivery is moving and personable, intimating a sentiment that the audience shares with her.  The chiming keys murmur and cluster gently around her vocals along Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh's gem "Let Me Down Easy," and kick up to a swinging canter through Stephen Sondheim's softly sparkled "Live Alone and Like It."

Purl treats every tune as though each has a special place ingrained in her soul, expressing pivotal moments and indelible memories from the chapters of her life.  Sometimes reflective, sometimes celebratory, and sometimes pining over a great loss, Purl takes the listener through a series of life experiences that audiences will relate to and find solace in her endeavor to rekindle the memories of special moments in time.

Musicians:
Linda Purl - vocals
Tedd Firth - piano
David Finck - bass
Ray Marchica - drums & percussion
Nelson Rangell - Reed

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