New Orleans Delight

1. The Last Mile Of The Way (J. Oatman / E. Marks) 4:20
2. In The Garden * (C. A. Miles) 4:23
3. Will The Circle Be Unbroken (C. H. Gabriel / R. A. Habershon) 5:03
4. Amazing Grace (J. P. Carrell / D. S. Clayton / J. Newton) 6:58
5. I Shall Not Be Moved (E. H. Boatner) 5:21
6. Peace In The Valley (T. A. Dorsey) 4:45
7. This Little Light Of Mine (trad, arr. New Orleans Delight) 6:05
8. His Eye Is On The Sparrow (C. H. Gabriel / C. D. Martin) 7:14
9. In The Sweet Bye And Bye (J. P. Webster / S. F. Bennett ) 6:20
10. Abide With Me (W. H. Monk / H. F. Lyte) 3:49
11. Just A Little While To Stay Here (E. M. Barlett) 6:41
12. He Touched Me * (W. J. Gather) 6:00
13. You Are My Sunshine (J. Davis / C. Mitchell) 4:34

Booklet 32 pages

Lee Gunness (voc)
Norbert Susemihl (tp, flgh*)
Kjeld Brandt (cl)
Bengt Hansson (tb)
Hans Pedersen (p)
Erling Lindhardt (bjo)
Stefan Kärfve (b)
Claus Lindhardt (dm)

Total playing time: 71:42

Recorded at Femø Jazz Festival July 31 and August 1, 2004 by Jørgen Vad
Mixed by Stefan Kärfve, Norbert Susemihl and Jørgen Vad
Mastering: Jørgen Vad · Jørgen Vad uses Audio-Technica microphones
Executive producer: Henning Schädler
Liner notes: Marcel Joly
Coverphoto: Barbara Jakobsen ·
Discphoto: Göran Magnusson
Layout and dtp: Kjeld Brandt
Music Mecca CD 4091-2




Liner notes:

Lee Gunness:
spreading the gospel around

On an evening in May 1992, the day before I had to leave New Orleans to go back home, I was sitting in George Buck’s radio room. At my right side sat Lee Gunness, the Australian singer, at my left side the boss himself, George. Lee and I had been invited by George as guests on his daily radio program. That man is a real professional in radio broadcasting! He has the knack of making his guests feel at ease from the first moment on. He started the program by asking me something like this: “Marcel, each year you come to New Orleans for the Jazz & Heritage Festival. What impressed you most this year?” The answer was simple. I said: “Well, every year has its own highlights. There was the year I saw One Mo’ Time for the first time, there was the year I heard Michael White for the first time, there was the year I discovered the Algiers Brass Band. This year definitely was the Lee Gunness year!” Then George started to talk to Lee, had her tell about how she became involved with New Orleans music, he said how much he admired her singing and so on and so on. We played a couple of tracks of a cassette Lee had recorded in Australia. We played some tracks of a record by the Belgian New Orleans Roof Jazzmen and finally George asked Lee to sing along with a spiritual recorded by that band and so she did and it was all bloody marvellous! The next day I was on the plane back to Belgium and Lee was in a studio with George to record her first album for GHB. Fairy tales happen! After hearing Lee sing just one song, George had decided she should record for GHB before leaving New Orleans. After ONE song! This man is a legend, he has been in the recording business since 1948, he has recorded some of the greatest musicians in jazz – his catalogue is there to prove it! – and after hearing ONE song by this unknown Australian singer, he knew exactly what he had to do: record her as soon as possible before someone else did. So she had to be something special. She IS!

For me it all started late at night on April 14. I had been at a party given by that friendly bartender Ralf Black for a Belgian group of visitors at Joe’s Jungle Bar, just outside the French Quarter. Walking back to my apartment on Dumaine I came by that small, old German bar, Fritzel’s on Bourbon Street, heard some music and dropped in. In there were two of my oldest jazz friends, the late Shirley House and her husband Dick, both from Australia. They were listening to a band of mostly Aussie musicians and a SINGER. She was singing a low down blues when I came in and that voice hit me like a bullet. From the first moment on I knew that this was my discovery for 1992. She was small, pretty, blond and very white, but she sounded like one of those old time black blues singers, people like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey or Billie Pierce. I remember that the first thing I said to her was: “Are you sure you aren’t black?” Obviously she was not but her voice WAS! Then she started to sing “His Eye Is On The Sparrow”. She did the verse a cappella and you could hear drop a pin in that otherwise noisy bar. Then she sang “Barrelhouse Blues”, an up-tempo “Lord, Lord, Lord”, a moving “In The Garden” and ended with a rousing “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” on which she put the microphone aside to clap her hands in pure joy, and sounded as loud and clear as with the mike. Wow! I should have been prepared to this wonderful experience because my old pal from Australia, the clarinet player Jack McLaughlin had written me earlier that year, that he would bring a singer along on his next trip to New Orleans. Now Australia has produced some fine New Orleans style musicians like trumpet players Geoff Bull, Pamela Hird and Maurie Garbutt, clarinet players like Nick Polites, Barry Wratten and Jack McLaughlin, banjoist Ashley Keating, bassist Dick Edser….but female singers ? The last one I had met in New Orleans – and who shall graciously remain unnamed – hadn’t impressed me at all. She needed her lyric book all the time and wiggled her ass while singing “Just A Closer Walk With Thee”. I’m not sure whom she was walking with, but obviously not the One intended in the song! So when I had read Jack’s letter I had forgotten all about the singer he was bringing to New Orleans. And here she was, Lee Gunness with shades of Mahalia, Rosetta Tharpe, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey…but at the same time completely her own self. Jack McLaughlin, who was the clarinet player with the band, John Van Buuren, the banjo player and Dick Edser, who was on bass, all from way down yonder, they all smiled at me…and then I remembered Jack’s letter. So this was Australia’s gift to New Orleans vocal art! What a precious gift it was!

Although it had become very late, Lee and I talked for a while. She told me that she had been singing as long as she could remember. Her first inspiration came from her parents’ country and western LPs, mostly Patsy Cline. Rock and roll, rhythm & blues, soul and folk music were other formative influences, people like Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles, but also some girl groups from the 50’s and 60’s. At sixteen she put her wish to become a professional singer in the fridge and, following her parents’ advise, went to college. Nevertheless she kept on singing all the time, mainly folk music. Then one day in Newcastle, while she supported herself through college, she came across Jack Mclaughlin’s Preservation of New Orleans Jazz Band, did a few songs with the band and was hooked forever. Jack gave her some cassettes and soon she was working as a regular member of the band for three years. At the same time she worked with several other bands, like the Maryville Jazz Band, also in Newcastle. Back in Sidney she joined Bill Dudley’s New Zenith Jazz Band with which she appeared at several local and international jazz festivals, including the Edinburgh Jazz Festival in Scotland. “Right now” she said “I’m working with 3 bands, the Zenith, a quartet based on the same kind of music and my own group, The Black Rose.” I asked about her age and she said she was born in Sidney on January 15, 1966 which made her 26 at the time. On my way back home I felt like a happy man. I had discovered a new shining star in my musical heaven!

The next day I met my old buddy Don Marquis and told him about Lee. “I know her” he said “I heard her when I was in Australia. Is she really as good as I think?” “Oh yes” I said “ she IS.”

The following day she was singing, accompanied by the three Australians, at Joe’s Jungle Bar for a small but enthusiastic audience. The next day we all went to the Norwegian Seamen’s church to listen to Wallace Davenport’s New Orleans Gospel Singers, one of them being the venerable and wonderful Aline White. While I was sitting there an idea came to me. Wouldn’t it be great if Lee would sing a couple of songs for this appreciative audience after the normal program had finished? I talked about it to Jack and the three Aussies jumped in a taxi to go and get their instruments at their apartment. After the concert, to which Lee had been listening in awe, I took the microphone and said: “Don’t go home yet folks, we have a little surprise for you, a little “lagniappe” like they say here in New Orleans. Here’s Lee Gunness and her trio from Australia”. Lee sang a couple of songs and got a thundering applause. Then Jack asked Aline White, who was sitting in the audience and who knew Jack very well because he had worked with her in previous years, if she would like to sing a duet with Lee. The old lady graciously obliged and they sang a heartfelt “Just A Closer Walk With Thee” together. Lee sang two more songs and another duet, a rousing “By And By” ended the evening. On the spot Aline invited Lee to be her guest at her coming performance at the Gospel Tent, an important venue at the Jazz & Heritage Festival. There that five feet four blond and lily-white girl from Sidney with the rich, deep black voice received a standing ovation from a predominantly black audience!

And so it went on and on, one victory after another. Lee conquered the spoiled New Orleans audience by storm. She was soon singing regularly at Fritzel’s and at Molly’s in the Market on Decatur Street, always with her Australian trio and guests. She sat in with Barry Wratten’s Pelican Jazz Band, with Chris Tyle’s little group at the Can Can Café on Bourbon, with Kid Bastien from Canada and even Chris Burke, known for his allergy for girl singers, invited her to sing with his band. I remember one singular event which I think I never told before, but in a way it was funny. I took Lee to the brunch at the Intercontinental to hear Michael White and Gregg Stafford. At the table next to us sat a young black couple, obviously belonging to the black high society. They ignored us two ofays, Lee wearing white jeans and me wearing blue jeans, in an ostensive way, although I had put on a white shirt and my Preservation Hall tie. Even plush places like the Intercontinental don’t worry too much about dress conventions as long as you have your credit card ready. When Michael and Gregg came to our table and played a complete song for us, they started to look at us. Then Michael asked Lee to sing a song with them. She sang “What A Friend We Have In Jesus” – after all it was Sunday! – and all the sudden the black couple became the friendliest people in the world, started talking to us and asked all kind of questions.

One more move to make was having George Buck listen to Lee. To make George listen to something new is as hard as climbing Mount Everest. After all, he has heard them all, and recorded most of them. Scepticism towards new talent is a second nature to him. Of course he had already heard about the new singer in town – nothing musical escapes him – and had already told me that he would like to hear her. The first time she was on stage with a couple of songs at George’s and Nina’s Palm Court Café was a complete misser, not because of Lee but because of George Buck. I had seen George sitting at a table, having lunch with a friend. I walked to his table and asked: “Well, what about it?” “What about what?” he said. “The singer, she just sang two songs!” He looked at me in complete surprise: “I didn’t listen, I was talking!” George is not only a master in recording excellent jazz, he is also a master in the art of conversation, even if he has to take care of most of it himself! So that was it. Lee had already gone by then and George continued talking to his guest. One night, near the end of our stay in New Orleans, Willie Humphrey, the 91 year old wizard of the clarinet, was on stage at the Palm Court, leading his little group. Lee was sitting in front of the band, her eyes filled with deep admiration. And George Buck was present too. It was now or never. I asked Lee if she would sing a song with the old master. She said yes, but I could see she didn’t believe it would actually happen. So I told Willie, whom I knew for many years, that there was a fine singer in the place and that she would like to do a song with him. I could see on his face that he was thinking the same thing I had been thinking when I received Jack McLaughlin’s letter: “Oh no, not another one!” Now Willie was not only a superb musician, but also a fine gentleman, so he grumbled “ What does she sing?” “Blues and spirituals.” “Well, let her do a blues” So Lee went on stage and whispered to Willie “Freight Train Blues”. Willie played one blues chorus and then nodded to Lee. It was a beautiful experience to watch the old veteran’s face when Lee started to sing. First there was astonishment and disbelief, then it turned to plain admiration. We all could see it reminded him of a long time ago when singers like this were not as rare as today. I looked at George and I could see he had listened this time. On his ageless face there was that boyish smile. “She is magnificent!” he said to me “I have to record her.” One thing is sure: George could not have been impressed by Lee’s beautiful looks, with her white outfit and her long blond hair, because, as you probably know, he is blind. It was only her voice that mattered! The next days he had already booked studio time and was now trying to assemble a band that would fit Lee’s repertoire, not an easy task in just a couple of days left. Hal Smith’s Creole Sunshine Jazz Band did a great job. Except for a few spirituals and a couple of popular songs, Lee sang the blues in its many forms. The CD became a best-seller. This was the end of the 1992 fairy tale.

In 1993 she was invited by the New Orleans Rascals from Japan, the band about which Alan Jaffe once said: “ If one day the musicians here in New Orleans should forget how this music has to be played, I would bring the Rascals down here for a couple of months to teach them again.” She performed with the Rascals at the Kobe Festival, at the New Suntory Five Club in Osaka and at the Hub and Boss jazz clubs in Tokyo. With her on that tour was fellow Australian Geoff Bull on trumpet. They appeared on a CD on the Rascals’ own label.

Two years later Lee returned to New Orleans and recorded a second CD for GHB this time completely focussing on her religious repertoire. The accompanying band, the Eclypse Alley Heavenly Seven –the name based on the famous George Lewis’ Eclypse Alley Five - included the great Sammy Rimington. She stayed in New Orleans for two months.

In 1998 Lee was invited by the famous New Orleans born singer Lillian Boutté to tour in Europe for two months. She conducted gospel workshops in England and Switzerland. She performed with Lillian at the Oslo Jazz Festival in Norway. In 1999 she brought Lillian Boutté to Australia to help her conduct the first gospel workshop in Adelaide. In the mean time she got married and her first little boy was born in 2000, the second one in 2001. Family life somewhat curtailed her musical activities.

I was excited when Kjeld Brandt mailed me that Lee Gunness was going to tour with his band, New Orleans Delight. I figured that the combination of one of the best New Orleans style singers in the world with one of Europe’s leading jazz bands in this kind of music could only become a marvellous experience. It did!

As New Orleans Delight has no regular trumpet player, Norbert Susemihl from Germany was invited to join the tour. Norbert had been working and recording with the band before. It is safe to say that he is one of the most experienced European musicians in all kinds of New Orleans music. Born in 1956, Norbert started playing music at fourteen, first on guitar, from 1971 on trumpet. He co-founded Papa Tom’s Lamentation Jazz Band, the band that brought Lillian Boutté to Europe for the first time. In 1978 he made his first trip to New Orleans. In 1980 he stayed there for a whole year! In subsequent years he made many more trips to the city, working with all kinds of bands and became a well-known guest with old and young musicians. One day when he had marched with the Algiers Brass Band he appeared on a photo in a local newspaper. Asked by one of his neighbours what this white cat was doing with their band, one of the musicians of the Algiers Brass Band answered: “He ain’t white, he’s German!” Marvellous! Sounds a little bit like “he ain’t heavy, he’s my brother”. I was present at a quartet recording session with Norbert and veteran clarinet player Willie Humphrey, which resulted in a fine LP, later reissued on CD. Norbert also recorded with “Father” Al Lewis. He has mastered the complete gamma of New Orleans styles, from a Billie & DeDe act, together with the perennial Sadie Goodson, to raising up a storm with the modern Rebirth at the Glass House, a black bar in uptown New Orleans. So, he was the obvious choice to be the second guest at the Lee Gunness tour. Norbert performs in excellent fashion on both the trumpet and the flugelhorn. The chemistry between him and the band, his high standard and great musical experience have helped a lot to make this tour and this recording so successful.

Touring with Lee Gunness was a wonderful experience for the musicians of New Orleans Delight, not only because of her gigantic talent but also because she didn’t act like a star but had become “one of the boys”. Much time on the band bus between gigs was spent trying to locate tunes and keys for these tunes and writing set lists for each performance, always different to the day before. Wherever they came they sought for a Xerox copier to make copies of these lists for every member of the band. One time they had to do with a vicar’s fax at a nearby location. After the tour the band has bought a portable copier to avoid the last minute stress to find one. Many of the tunes played were new to the band or keys were new to them or to Lee. Nevertheless the audiences always had the impression of a well-rehearsed band, although many of the arrangements were improvised on stage. When they arrived in each town, Lee walked around the neighbourhood looking for one or two flowers to put in her hair. It had to be flowers from that place!

In Copenhagen Lee stayed in a cosy apartment in the centre of the city where Kjeld’s daughter had lived before. One night she was walking through the neighbourhood and heard the sounds of live New Orleans jazz. She entered the pub and immediately was recognised by Arild Holm, the banjo player with whom she had worked earlier on a tour with Norway’s Magnolia Jazz Band. Of course Lee was asked to sit in with the band, which she did. The next day on the band bus, after an evening of singing and chatting, she was unusually quiet, saving whatever was left of her voice and energy for the next performance. But again the audience got the full measure of her talent.

It was a pleasure and a honour to write the liner notes for this extraordinary CD. After the two CDs New Orleans Delight recorded with Kid Bastien and George Berry, which met with international critical approval, I told Kjeld Brandt that it would be difficult to maintain that same standard with future recordings. I should have known better! It is my honest opinion that this CD is on the same level of excellence. It is very difficult to mention highlights on this record, but let me try after my latest listening.
“The Last Mile Of The Way” was recorded by the band with Cliff “Kid” Bastien and George Berry. On that CD the song had become a touching premonition of both guest artists’ untimely death. Sung here by Lee Gunness it has become a joyful testimony of hope and faith.

“In The Garden”, the beautiful hymn in 6/8 time, features between the two vocal parts a lovely solo on flugelhorn by Norbert and some wonderful, delicate low register clarinet by Kjeld.

I mentioned before the marvellous a cappella singing by Lee. There are several fine examples of it on this CD. On "Amazing Grace” she does two verses – which I never heard before! – a cappella before the band joins in on the well-known chorus. On her favourite hymn, “His Eye Is On The Sparrow”, she does it again. It brought me right back to the first time I heard her, that night at Fritzel’s in 1992. Very fine instrumental solos on this song too, including a gem by trombonist Bengt Hansson. The small a cappella part in “We Shall Not Be Moved” – where she invites the audience to sing with her – is a monument of swing!

It was on that first trip to New Orleans that Lee discovered “Peace In The Valley” as sung by Elvis Presley, and added it to her repertory right away. Norbert and Kjeld shine again on flugelhorn and clarinet!

“Abide With Me”, the 19th century hymn with music by Englishman William H. Monk, is mainly vocal and delicate piano by Hans. Lee stays in the lower register. What a voice!

I will never forget the first time I heard “Just A Little While To Stay Here”. It was on the Bunk Johnson talking LP on American Music. While Bunk is talking about street parades, his brass band starts to play this tune and it grabbed me right away. I heard it many times at funerals in New Orleans. It is the song usually played when the band marches to the funeral home. Lee does something special with the verse. She replaces accents and creates a completely new rhythmic impetus.

“He Touched Me” proves that beautiful hymns do not all date from long ago. It was written in 1963.

“You Are My Sunshine”, a Louisiana state song, is the only secular song on this CD, but what better way could be found to end this great CD of New Orleans music?
I realise I haven’t mentioned the great rhythm section of New Orleans Delight. They do an excellent job as usual, intimate and subdued on the slower hymns – listen to that fine bowed bass! – and swinging and exciting on the fast ones.
I
You are holding a CD that will give you immense musical pleasure. To those who share in one way or another Lee’s religious believes, it will also be a profound spiritual experience.

P.S. Lee Gunness has recently given birth to a third little boy. Congratulations Lee!

- Marcel Joly

Dear Kjeld,
Today I received the two new CD's and I listened already carefully to them. As always with you and your band: again it are two new gems in the treasury of New Orleans Jazz.
- John van Zuidam, The Geroge Lewis Society



www.radiojazz.co.uk

Recorded just last year this is entirely of hymns and spirituals. Played and sung with both enthusiasm and not a little gentle reverence it’s a set that you’ll find grows on you. The track I’ve chosen to broadcast “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” is typical - it has a catchy melody, a wonderfully chosen ‘bounce’ tempo (reminiscent of Ken Colyer’s best) and is played with subtle enthusiasm and not a little inspiration. Sessions like this could get me in church more often. In one word - brilliant.
- Brian Harvey



Traditional Jazz

CD reviews by Geogg Boxell, New Zealand

When my old mate, ex-international speedway rider and fellow traditional jazz aficionado Bob Andrews came back from a big jazz festival in Australia he waffled on to me about this amazing gospel and blues singer he had heard called Lee Gunness. He had tried to get a copy of one of her albums, but they had sold out. He said I must hear her and maybe I should try and get a CD via the Internet (he is a bit like that; get someone else to buy a CD and then borrow it). I looked but finances always seemed strained (I'm a bit like that with money: cautious). However, when I saw this CD putting Lee with one of the world,s finest New Orleans bands, I just had to get it didn't I.

Lee Gunness is everything Bob said about her and more. This diminutive Ozzie singer has a rich deep voice that belies her size. When you couple her with New Orleans Delight and their guest Norbert Susemihi you have an album that is a must buy. I have listened to NOD for some years now hearing them improve and mature. I have also heard them with some excellent lady singers, but this CD is the ultimate, especially so given my love of gospel. I am not sure what else I can say without sounding like a simpering sycophant, so forget any caution you may have with spending your money, get a copy for yourself, don't try borrowing it. Play it just the once and you will know why I am saying that this CD belongs in every jazz lover's collection.

PS: Since writing this I have lent the CD to my father. Unfortunately he won't give it back, so it looks like I will have to wait until he dies to re-claim it. In view of this I think I will use the CD to play at his funeral when the time comes.



www.JazzReview.com

CD reviews by Richard Bourcier <http://www.jazzreview.com/contact/contacts_us-user_id.html>

New Orleans Delight is one of the finest little traditional groups in Europe. They seem to have a never-ending schedule. Like jazz music itself, the band is always in transition. This CD is the last for trombonist Bengt Hansson who retired from the group recently. It’s the first recording for Hans Pedersen who replaces Goran Magnusson in the piano chair.

The guest trumpeter for this session is Norbert Susemihl in his third CD with the Danish band. Susemihl plays with a number of New Orleans style in his native Germany. In his liner notes, Marcel Joly tells a short story about the trumpeter’s appearance in New Orleans with a marching band. “Asked by one of his neighbors what this white cat was doing with the band, one of the musicians with the Algiers Brass Band answered: He Ain’t white, he’s German.”

While I had heard great things about the featured vocalist Lee Gunness, I had never actually heard her on record. Be assured, this is an experience. When the diminutive Australian singer opens her mouth, you had better stand back. Lee Gunness could easily produce a tidal wave. Influenced by such folks as Bessie Smith and Mahalia Jackson, Gunness has recorded with bands in New Orleans, Europe and her home country. During the late 1990s, she toured Europe with the Crescent City’s own Lillian Boutte.

Gunness and New Orleans Delight rattle the windows as they romp their way through a collection of gospel favorites. As one would expect, there are some quiet moments and some beautiful a cappella passages on Amazing Grace and His Eye Is On The Sparrow. The soulful songstress belts out I Shall Not Be Moved and Just A Little While To Stay Here in true New Orleans style, inspiring some nice solos by the front line. The singer’s voice has the tensile strength of steel. It’s quite amazing!

New Orleans Delight has recorded a relatively new hymn He Touched Me before and it’s becoming a favorite for leader Kjeld Brandt. Brandt’s clarinet and Susemihl’s flugelhorn provide a beautiful background for Gunness on the 1963 hymn by W.J.Gather. As always, the N.O.D.’s rhythm section is flawless and tasteful. Gospel and trad fans will love this album.



Just Jazz September 2005
CD review by Burt Thompson

I can still recall the first time I heard Lee Gunness sing. I was almost literally stopped in my tracks, and her voice has that effect on me still each time I hear her sing. It is a rich, powerful, all-enveloping voice that seems to wrap you up but not knock you down. And it is "black," as almost everyone who has commented on it attests. Since Ms. Gunness is hardly a household name, not knowing any different one might expect her to be physically like Ma or Bessie, probably from one of the southern states, deeply rooted in the blues. Only the last is true. Paradoxically, she is a diminutive white Australian woman who has obviously immersed herself in listening to the black American blues singers. And she has learned well the lessons they teach: to sing slightly before or after the beat rather than squarely on it all of the time; to bend a note; to scoop into it; to circle one before finally landing on it; to indulge vibrato wisely. Finally, she is quite comfortable in the upper and the lower registers. In short, she is a monster vocalist.

Of course, I am not the first to find this out. As Marcel Joly tells in the liner notes, she has knocked out every musician—even the most skeptical ("O God, not another chick who thinks she can sing")—and every other person involved in music production after they have heard the first notes. The one exception seems to have been George Buck, head of Jazzology records in New Orleans, who apparently managed to focus exclusively on a conversation he was engaged in and claimed not to have heard a note she sang when she sat in at his and his wife, Nina's, Palm Court Cafe. But on a second occasion when he gave her his attention as she sat in, he was so bowled over that he hastily scheduled a recording session (GHB CD 314 - Lee Gunness Sings the Blues) a couple of days before she was to return to Australia.

This recording, Mecca Music CD 4091-2, was made at the yearly jazz festival at Femø, a small island off the Danish coast, in the summer of 2004 when Ms. Gunness was touring with the New Orleans Delight band from Denmark. All of the selections are gospels or hymns, excepting the last, You Are My Sunshine, which to my ears does not come off too well as a jazz vehicle. It is certainly played as jazz, as any tune can be, but some songs lend themselves more to a jazz treatment than others, and for me this is one of the latter. The only other selection I find less than satisfying as a jazz rendition is Abide with Me, beautifully sung as it is to the accompaniment of the rhythm section only. But the others are winners all! Demonstrating her complete command and confidence, Ms. Gunness is not averse to indulging in some a cappella singing, e.g., boldly leading into Amazing Grace for two verses or having the band drop out while she sings a chorus or two, as she does on I Shall Not Be Moved and This Little Light of Mine.

Providing her with a solid backing is the New Orleans Delight band. Guest Norbert Susemihl on trumpet lays down some nice counterpoint to the vocals. I would, however, have liked more ensemble choruses from the band when they were filling between vocal choruses: they were often quite content to allow one instrument to "solo," accompanied by the rhythm section while the rest of the front line dropped out. But the album belongs to Ms. Gunness, and the band generously does not try to take that from her. The audience is well aware of that, too, and responds enthusiastically to her renditions, witness the rhythmic clapping so beloved of approving European audiences!

Like other Music Mecca CD's, this one can be ordered on-line at the following internet websites: www.cdjazz.com (e-mail ambia@cdjazz.com) or www.jazznblues.co.uk (e-mail jazzjerry@aol.com).



The JazzGazette

For years Marcel had told me about this wonderful Australian singer. I have to admit, I had never heard her neither live or on CD. All the positive adjectives Marcel and other reviewers and critics have used in the past, prove to be everything but exaggerated.
She sings with such an ease and swing and an Afro-American feeling that it is hard to believe she is Australian.
With all this we could almost forget there is a band backing her on this CD.
Once again Kjeld has managed to reach the high level of quality he has fixed for his band. This in spite of the personnel changes.
This review might seem very short to you, but the music on this CD is so wonderful and is so authentic, it is hard to find superlatives that were not already used to describe it.
Like the late Jan Taris of Doctor Jazz used to say, this CD is an absolute MUST!
- Jempi De Donder