There are jazz singers and there is Dee Daniels! Dee brings a welcome mature approach to the jazz music scene with having obviously studied all the eclectic masters like Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington or Sarah Vaughn, with whom she had the opportunity of singing whilst staying in Europe from 1982 to 1987.
Dee has a deep and rich voice that sometimes reminds me of the late Teri Thornton. But Dee's also capable of reaching those high notes (just listen to Love Ain't Love Without You, a song which was written by Dee and on which she also plays the piano).
Feels So Good! is a very apt title for Dee's second album on her own Three X D Music imprint, that offers a fine blend of some chestnuts, some less well-known cover versions and original compositions by Dee. And you can hear it on every track that Dee and her musicians had much fun recording this album. Maybe that's why it has been recorded in a mere six hours.
The album kicks off with a great rendition of Honeysuckle Rose that starts like a show-stopping ballad to turn into a swinging track with remarkable interaction between Dee and Benny Powell on trombone.
Horace Silver's instrumental Song For My Father is turned into a very convincing vocal jazz song that sounds like it has always been meant to be performed as a vocal version.
Another proof of Dee's ability to adopt a song and turning it into her own, is her cover of April In Paris, the sad approach of this song is intensified by Benny Powell's muted trombone here.
Midlife Crisis was written by Dee and Doug Fleming and is a swinging song about the changes you go through when turning forty but at the same time Dee tells us not to worry about your age ("Say it loud/ I'm forty and proud").
Dee also breathes new life into David/Bacharach's The Look Of Love and Bricusse/Newley's Who Can I Turn To with some impressive vocal performances (plus playing piano on Who Can I Turn To).
Singing about the joy of love is certainly one of the favourite all-time topics of music. But it isn't done always as enchanting as by Dee on her original composition Love Is Here, an uptempo tune that almost gives you the same sensation as being in love.
Another highlight is Love Ain't Love Without You. Composed by Dee herself this has a great bluesy feeling to it that fits to the song's lyrical content. Like on the other songs, you can hear on Love Ain't Love Without You, that Dee Daniels isn't your twenty-something young jazz singer who may sing about things she hasn't actually been through in her life so far. No, you just believe at once that Dee has experienced the topics she sings about, that she has had her Midlife Crisis and that she has been so badly in love with someone ("Everywhere I go/ I've got to put on a show/ To hide all my pain and tears that fall like rain/.../ I'm consumed with burning desire/ My need for you just fuels the fire"). There's only one thing to criticize here and that is on Love Ain't Love Without You the drummer Kenny Washington seems to deliver a premature-entry towards the end of the song but then this adds further authenticity to the live-feeling of Feels So Good! and the fact that it has been recorded in just six hours with no re-recordings.
Otherwise there's no denying the musicality and talent of the musicians Dee has chosen to accompany her: Houston Person (tenor sax), Norman Simmons (piano), John Clayton Jr. (bass) and the aforementioned Benny Powell (trombone) and Kenny Washington (drums).
Together they have created a great jazz album with a timeless quality that makes you want to discover Dee's back catalogue and keeps you in eager anticipation for new releases. Great to hear a singer as talented as Dee who hasn't been absorbed or spoilt by the mainstream.