Sunny Side Records
2009
In The Middle Of It All
About This Album
Melissa Walker's fourth CD is significant in many musical ways, for she is an extraordinarily gifted jazz singer with one foot in the tradition and the other planted in more progressive notions. It was likely that this album would have never come to pass, for Walker battled with allergies and infections, and was ordered by doctors not to speak or sing due to vocal cord paralysis. After a few years of silent recuperation, it is happily reported that she's back to singing, and marvelously at that. The jazz community/family has embraced her return, as a stellar group of first-class players accompanies Walker, including the trio of Aaron Goldberg, Christian McBride, and Clarence Penn, with soloists in guitarists Adam Rogers and Keith Ganz, and on three tracks harmonica player Gregoire Maret. This broad-ranging program includes jazz standards; underground, country, or contemporary pop; R&B; and nu jazz. Walker's voice is pretty strong considering her affliction, retaining a supple sweetness that has not a trace or residue of saccharine. Her slow, late-night take of Arthur Alexander's "In the Middle of It All" indicates she's lost a love and grown from it, with Maret's supportive harmonica buoying her emotional loss.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,6,9 and 12)

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