Search - Rebecca Peterson & Rik Wright :: Build Your Dreams

This excellent recording of jazz vocal and guitar duets is an insightful collaboration between vocalist Rebecca Peterson and Seattle jazz guitarist Rik Wright that explores seldom performed selections from the lexicons of Nancy Wilson, Sarah Vaughan and Etta Jones. It's difficult to nail down just what makes Rebecca Peterson's voice so darn compelling. Maybe it's the comfort and familiarity, maybe the confiding honesty. Whatever the case, it works exceptionally well. Her singing fashion is tranquil and warm, and has a lush quality that is both attractive and mesmerizing. HipSync stalwart Rik Wright is a strikingly inventive guitarist, yet here is not afraid to strip his playing down to provide simple, easy-going progressions that carry the tune without ever overdoing it. His solos often use passing tones as signal elements rather than relying on them merely to bridge chord changes, and there is an obstinate, near-vagrant quality of chromaticism to his single lines that hint of harmonic ideas drifting at a different pace and perhaps even in a different direction than the song s original changes. Collectively, Wright succesfully crafts a performance that focuses on the richness of melody, composition, and arrangement of the tunes rather than just his technique on the instrument itself. The music on this recording can be deceptively complex, despite its simple components. The spontaneous interaction between Wright and Peterson in this duo format allows jazz fans to witness jazz improvisation at its most rudimentary level - that between a singer and an instrumentalist. The telepathic communication between Wright's arch top guitar and Peterson's vocals can be closely examined as there is no other accompaniment to interfere. Collectively, this is a very intimate and special session that should be essential to fans of great American songbook.