REVIEWS
VYING FOR THE PRIZE
THE OTTAWA CITIZEN
Peter Hum
March 28, 2009
Ima (4 Stars)
Yvette Tollar (ROM)
Try to pigeonhole Toronto singer Yvette Tollar's new CD Ima and you're in for some frustration.
The disc is in the running for best vocal jazz album, but its heavy-on-originals program nods to sophisticated pop, folk and world music. Meanwhile, powerful improvising, vivid and nuanced accompaniment and a go-for-it attitude make it 100-per-cent jazz.
Contradiction, the disc's evocative, polyrhythmic opener, and I Forgive You, a splashy, minor-key churner, feature Dave Restivo's surging piano. On Do You Remember Me and Hang On, folksy ballads by guitarist Kevin Breit, Tollar gives Norah Jones a run for her money. Tollar channels her inner Joni Mitchell on Edith and the Kingpin, which features a star turn from pianist David Virelles.
Throughout, bassist Rich Brown and drummer Larnell Lewis supply plenty of bottom-heavy muscle.
A lesser singer could not bind such disparate material into a single CD. Nor would could she ride above powerhouses like Restivo, Virelles and Breit. But with her assured and expressive voice, Tollar's more than up to the challenge, and deserves her category's Juno.
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