When even the London Financial Times (certainly not a specialist journal you'll consult if you're looking for jazz music reviews) says about a singer that he's "even mellower than Nat King Cole", then this singer certainly has that special something. And Bruce A. Henry just has this magic in his voice and singing that makes each of his song special.
His new album Connections is a great mixture of not so obvious cover versions and some original compositions. We all know the trouble with cover versions, don't we? Either they stay too close to the original or they are just a poor imitation. But there are some singers who can really make a cover song their own. Bruce A. Henry has this rare ability to record a song like you haven't heard them before.
Recorded with very experienced and capable musicans who hail from all over the world - like Adi Yeshaya (born in Israel), Nachito Herrera (from Cuba), or Yuri Merzhevsky (a native of St. Petersburg, Russia) - the musical background of Connections just oozes perfection and provides the perfect vehicle for Bruce's voice.
Just listen to his beautiful renditon of John Coltrane's/Gil Scott-Heron's Equinox for example or his tribute to the Langston Hughes poem I, Too, Sing America, called Darker Brother. With its slight African feeling, percussion, sax and trumpet and gospel-inspired background vocals by Malo Adams and Bruce himself, Darker Brother is one of the many highlights of the album.
Another highlight comes with Africa Cries, another original composition by Bruce, that deals with the trouble the continent Africa has these days. The sad message is intensified by the sole use of bass and electric and acoustic guitars as instruments. Together with Bruce singing and wailing this creates a really haunting song.
Moon is the third composition by Bruce and a sentimental ballad with just keys and mandolin and violin.
But Bruce also feels at home with some swinging uptempo songs like a great swing-jazz cover version of Earth Wind & Fire's Mighty, Mighty or Mongo Santamaria's Afro Blue.
Add to this a brilliant soulful midtempo version of Freddie Hubbard's Red Clay, a surprisingly good renditon of The Animals' The House Of The Rising Sun (surely not an obvious choice for a cover on a jazz album), a latin jazz inspired version of Rogers & Hammerstein's Sound Of Music and Duke Ellington's In A Sentimental Mood and you have a great diverse album every discerning jazz fan should own.