Cécile McLorin Salvant review: A jazz singer in the best tradition

Sometimes it’s hard to say exactly what is the difference between heritage jazz and the real, living tradition, but you know it when you hear it. With her playful nightclub demeanour, velvety feminine voice and classic songbook repertoire, Cecile McLorin Salvant may sound like something out of the 1950s, but, rather than imitating the singers of the past – there are certainly traces of Holiday, Vaughan and Dearie – the Miami-born vocalist is emerging from the same wellspring of music.

She is a real jazz singer in the classic mode who can take a song and make it feel like it's the first time you've heard it. Also, like her predecessors, it doesn't hurt that McLorin Salvant is supported here by some first-rate musicians, particularly the rising New York pianist Aaron Diehl. mackavenue.com