GRAMMY Award-winning vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant has had a remarkable rise to stardom in her professional career, and she’s taking another big leap forward with Dreams and Daggers, her third album for Mack Avenue Records. More information on the release, which will be available September 29th, is forthcoming. In 2013, McLorin Salvant made her Mack Avenue Records debut with WomanChild, garnering a GRAMMY Award-nomination, NPR Music’s pick for “Best Jazz Vocal Album of the Year,” and three placements in DownBeat’s critic’s poll as “Jazz Album of the Year,” “Top Female Vocalist,” and “Best Female Jazz Up and Coming Artist of the Year,” among many other accolades. Her 2015 follow up release, For One To Love, won the GRAMMY® Award for “Best Jazz Vocal Album.”

REVIEW:

Recorded live at the Village Vanguard and in studio at New York's DiMenna Center, the double-disc set features Salvant on a thoughtfully curated selection of standards and several originals, all touching upon the themes of romance and heartbreak. Along with her regular trio of pianist Aaron Diehl, bassist Paul Sikivie, and drummer Lawrence Leathers, Salvant is joined at various times by the classical string ensemble the Catalyst Quartet, who supply a cinematic layer of orchestration to Salvant's already emotive style. Whether she takes on a warhorse here like "I Didn't Know What Time It Was," or reveals her impeccable flair for picking lesser performed songs as on her wry reading of Noel Coward's "Mad About the Boy," she imbues each track with her own distinctive point of view. The few original compositions included here especially reveal her to be a literate, deeply poetic artist with a strong sense of personal identity. Ultimately, on Dreams and Daggers, with its balanced framework of live and studio recordings, happy and sad romantic songs, small group and classical chamber pieces, Salvant remains as bold and as sharp as ever.

--AllMusicGuide.com (Matt Collar)