Music & More

Pure & Easy:   Sara Gazarek is a jazz singer who has a clear and sweet voice that is pure delight. On her first album, Yours (2005), Sara mostly featured selections from the great American songbook. In 2007 she released Return To You on which she covered more modern singer-songwriters like Billy Joel, Gillian Welch, and Leonard Cohen. Paul McCartney's "Junk" was an inspired cover choice and although Joni Mitchell's songwriting genius is notoriously difficult to cover well, Sara turned in a really sweet jazzy version of "Carey". The cover songs on Blossom & Bee are a great mix of the classic and the contemporary and because they are a whole lot less readily familiar, they mesh well with the originals to make Blossom & Bee a more cohesive Sara Gazarek album than her previous efforts. Veteran jazz guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli does a beautiful vocal duet with Sara on the title track, the album's centerpiece, a gem of an original ...