Danielle Reich: This Year's Kisses review

On her new album, This Year's Kisses, vocalist Danielle Reich displays diverse influence, but it's the consistently displayed qualities that make it a winning effort.

From the opener, "On the Street Where You Live," I was struck by how Danielle stays faithful to melodies without delivering them the exact same way each time, and how instead of laying a lot of inflection on words or emoting more than necessary, she communicates just enough of the emotion of the lyrics while letting her friendly tone be the most prominent element of her delivery.

The band—trumpeter Carol Morgan, who also produced the album, tenor saxophonist Seth Paynter, pianist Andrew Lienhard, bassist David Craig, and drummer Daleton Lee—have an economic approach, showing creativity in the arrangements and their playing while letting the strong material mostly sell itself. The solos pick up smoothly from what's come before but have their own expressive and sometimes exploratory qualities, and they never last so long or go so off the map that the listener forgets what song is playing.

Some album highlights include Danielle showing off her French on "Ne Me Quitte Pas"—interestingly, although I don't know what many of the words in this song mean, I'm as engaged by the emotive vocal performance here at least as much as I am anywhere else on the album—, her slow, somewhat cinematic singing on "If I Love You," and the upbeat treatment of "Speak Low."

With some Latin influence and some French influence, some swing, hard bop, and straight ahead jazz, Danielle, Carol, and the group have delivered a twelve-track album that is clearly made by professional, focused musicians that are very familiar with the source material, and the appeal of the music should be wide as the approach is serious but the final product is pleasant and not the least bit intimidating.