Telarc
2004
Love Wants To Dance
About This Album
Maria Muldaur's website quotes her as saying, "My goal is to continue growing and improving as a singer of soulful songs all of my life." It's a single point of focus that has steered her long career through some tricky twists and turns and has provided an anchor for a remarkably consistent recording career. Love Wants to Dance is an elegant, swinging celebration of love in song played to a soundtrack of jazzy blues and sleek R&B. As has become her norm, Muldaur and co-producer Randy Labbe select a wonderfully eclectic mix of material and proceed to color and nuance their hidden elements. Muldaur's voice, which has become a gorgeously textured contralto, emotes effortlessly without giving in to cheap sentiment. Her delivery is flawless and dignified, as well as emotionally honest. The recording fits together seamlessly, as it examines love in all of its phases and stages, from hesitation to swooning bliss to tension and dissolution, as well as rebirth. While there isn't a dud in the bunch, there are some clear standouts, among them the Ivan Linns/Paul Williams' penned "Love Dance," with its shimmering faux Caribbean backbeat, and a stellar reading of Blossom Dearie's "Isn't That the Thing to Do," where want falls like rain form Muldaur's treatment of the tune.
Track List (try track 2)

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