Alice Zawadzki, China Lane, Whirlwind Recordings ***1/2
Singer-songwriter-violinist Alice Zawadzki who also plays piano on China Lane makes her promising debut here as a leader three years on from graduating with a masters in jazz singing from the Royal Academy of Music after earlier violin study at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. She’s part of an adventurous new wave of singers, along with such rising stars as Lauren Kinsella to have emerged in the last few years. Here with guitarist Alex Roth, bassist Andreas Lang, Kit Downes on Hammond organ, Monocled Man drummer Jon Scott and cellist Shirley Smart, with backing vocals from Emilia Mårtensson and Fini Bearman on the Denmark-inspired ‘Low Sun; Lovely Pink Light’, and a six-piece string section, the latter featuring on the nostalgic title track, a tribute to Manchester, home of China Lane, that draws the album to a close. Chamber music essentially that uses the language of jazz and traditional music as twin inspirations to veer off in exploratory directions, Zawadzki, with her highly expressive voice, can switch at will from sounding like a pop singer on the title track to immersing herself in the Sephardic folk of ‘Dicho Me Habian Dicho’, in equal measure and to considerable effect. SG
