Oakland singer-songwriter Valerie
Troutt's father is a blues and jazz singer-guitarist and her mother a preacher.
She grew up singing gospel music at Bishop Walter Hawkins' Love Center Church,
studied jazz at The New School in New York City, and spent two years as a
member of Linda Tillery's Cultural Heritage Center Choir. All of those
influences shine through the music on her first full-length CD, The Sound of
Peace.
There
was a time when black love was divine and music was her child/Through her smile
lays our history of pain and laughter/Spirit guide us along, she sings on
"Dienda," a ballad by the late Kenny Kirkland to which she set
lyrics. Maya Kronfeld's elegant piano chords supply the sole accompaniment as
Troutt caresses the plaintive melody in sustain-rich, at times breathy, mezzo
tones. It's the most satisfying song of the bunch.
Other
players, including bassists David Ewell and Raul Perales, drummers Darian Gray
and Darrell Green, tenor saxophonist Howard Wiley, guitarist Eric Volger, and
harmony vocalist Solas B. Lalgee, join in on the remaining nine numbers, seven
of them penned by Troutt. An optimistic attitude permeates many of her tunes,
particularly the self-affirming title track and the simultaneously swinging and
funky "Suddenly Awake." And the singer's arrangements of Bart
Howard's "Fly Me to the Moon" and Rodgers and Hart's "I Didn't
Know What Time It Was" take those familiar standards down rhythmic roads
much less traveled. (self release) ~ Lee Hildebrand, EBX
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