Search - Lullaby Baxter :: Capable Egg

From the perspective of musical genres, Lullaby Baxter is neither fish nor fowl. Her backing band on Capable Egg is the San Francisco-area Oranj Symphonette, an outfit that boasts a couple of Tom Waits's former collaborators. But Capable Egg doesn't sound like Oranj's usual fare--no Mancini or Morricone. Instead, Baxter creates a vocal-fronted mix that integrates samba, floating acoustic jazz, and lilting pop. There are elements of Waits's world-view and musical approach ("Rooster in Love") and a subtly pervasive mood that recalls Patricia Barber in spots and then more vaguely the genre-bending flange in late-1990s jazz that extends (in spirit) from Medeski Martin & Wood to the Jazz Mandolin Project. Baxter handles lyrics with a delicacy that disarms and a frankness that charms. She's instantly engaging, and the lyrical content is strangely constructed and wonderfully imaginative. --Andrew Bartlett