Jazz singer Vocalist Moon released her second album Tenderly last week. Recorded in Japan with an all-Japanese jazz ensemble, it’s very much a sister piece to her superb first album, Kiss Me.
This release, available on CD only in Japan and Hong Kong, is another collection of inspired jazz and pop covers. Moon’s seemingly effortless vocals grace songs by George Gershwin, The Corrs and Greenday to name a few.
Two tracks stand out for me. Her laid-back rendition of Minnie Ripperton’s classic Loving You wisely avoids the extraordinary high notes of the original and lends the song a greater sophistication. In a sublime version of Burt Bacharach’s Walk on By, her serene vocals float over a complex, lightly thundering jazz arrangement; the effect is like a refreshing light summer storm. Marvellous.
The album can be downloaded or streamed on iTunes or Apple Music.
Oh, if you’re wondering what the London link is, Moon thrilled audiences here in 2010 when she was a vocalist with trumpeter Juhan Lee’s popjazz band Winterplay. Here she is at the Sherlock Holmes pub, and the Korean Cultural Centre.