Search - Etta Jones :: My Mother's Eyes

Making It Real

Samuel Chell | Kenosha,, WI United States | 04/13/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Quite simply, Etta Jones (not James) was a once-in-a-lifetime talent deserving no less recognition than Billie, Ella, Sarah, or Carmen. The disarming naturalness of her sound and phrasing places her in the lineage descending directly from Billie, though her voice has more power and projection than Lady Day's. Etta could take Rodgers-Hammerstein, or "semi-operatic," material ("Be My Love") and transform it into language so direct, honest and real you're almost ashamed you once assumed the piece required the "Mario Lanza" treatment. Or she could take tepid ephemera like Burt Bacharach's "This Girl's in Love with You" and make it an emotional manifesto.

"In Your Mother's Eyes" is a worthy session by Etta, capturing the soulful, complete personal identification she establishes with her material. At the same time, her earlier Prestige albums ("Don't Go to Strangers," "Love Shout") not only reproduce her voice in its prime but provide musical backgrounds that are more "classic." The presence of the Fender Rhodes piano, use of the Hammond B-3 organ and addition of gratuitous reverb all limit the value of this session recorded in the late seventies.Etta never achieved the kind of recognition assuring the best settings, arrangements and production values. Perhaps one day some orchestrator will be inspired to extract the vocal track from "Gloomy Sunday" and replace the doctored and dated Fender Rhodes accompaniment with one more worthy of the vital gift she possessed."