Album Review: The Silent Wish from Michelle Nicolle

Album:  The Silent Wish
Artist:  Michelle Nicolle
Label:  Self-Released
Website:  Michellenicolle.com
Facebook.com/jazzsingeraustralia
IG: @michellenicollejazz
Bandcamp: https://michellenicolle.bandcamp.com/

Relishing a career as a vocalist-composer that has spanned more than 30 years singing with a multi-piece band, Australian based performer Michelle Nicolle strove to leap into unknown vocal territory with her recording The Silent Wish.  Backed by Southern Californian native, guitarist Larry Koonse, Nicolle found the inspiration she was looking for, performing eight standards plus one song from a New Zealand pop band, and one song penned by Nicolle.  

The recording is her 11th release and her first release in the USA.  The warm intimacy she emotes in her delivery, the tenderness she applies to the lyrics, the nuanced layers of her timbres, the depth of her vocal inflections all demonstrate her talent and charisma to breathe life into a song.

The soulful resonance of her vocals is reminiscent of Adele, as she sets a pensive mood in the opening track, “When Your Lover Has Gone.”   She engages in a playful repartee with Koonse's guitar riffs as she toggles between scatting and singing, displaying a likeness to the simpatico exchanges between Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass.  Her treatment of “I Hope I Never," a huge hit in Australia for the group Split Enz in the '80s, bolsters a soothing vocalese that articulates a sentimental slant.

Her expressive performance of “I'm Glad There Is You" imbues a romantic tint that switches to a playful cadence along "Putting It Off," binding improvised verses and featuring a solo with acrobatic scatting.  Her sleek elocution of the lyrics in "With A Song In My Heart" is helmed by a ruminating gait, supported by the elevating chords of Koonse's guitar arrangement.  The recording slows to a lulling nocturnal through "My One And Only Love," highlighting the tender lure of Nicolle's voice, and turns to a theatrical, showtunes-like schematic along “All the Things You Are,” moving swiftly across an array of expressions.

Koonse lays down a sparkling nylon string rhythm through "Only Trust Your Heart," augmenting Nicolle's elegant vocal musings, slinking into the gentle guitar grooves of "Gone With The Wind," stoking the arching lifts in Nicolle's dulcet crooning.  She personalizes "What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life" with an intensity in her register that penetrates the listener's core.

Nicolle reveals she taught herself how to play piano, played cornet in a marching band, and sang in school musicals.  At the University of Adelaide, she sang in jazz groups and earned a Bachelor of Education degree and an Associate Diploma of Jazz.  After graduating, she began building a career in Australia, winning acclaim and numerous awards, including the Music Victoria Award (2024), Bell Award (2017), Mo Award 2001, 2003 & 2004, National Jazz Award (1998), and was an A.R.I.A. Finalist (Australian ‘Grammy’s’ equivalent) in 2001, 2004, and 2009.  She’s held a 17-year weekly residency at the popular music venue, Brunswick Green.

Nicolle is also an experienced educator and currently teaches voice, improvisation and small jazz ensemble at the University of Melbourne and Monash University.  As an arranger and band leader, Nicolle produced most of her albums with her band, The MN Quartet.  The band has been together for 26 years, but for this recording she embarked on something new, creating a duet with Koonse on guitar that not only shows her talent as a versatile vocalist but also as a performer.  She showed she can hold her own with her only support being a very sparse accompaniment.  The result propels the listener's soul with Koonse's harmonious arrangements and Nicolle's expressive voice.

Musicians:
Michelle Nicolle - vocals
Larry Koonse - guitar