Keiko Lee
This Is Keiko Lee
(SME Records Japan)
By Sheng Yuen
In Summary : Currently Japan's most successful export to the jazz scene.
Blessed with a voice that reminds one of jazz divas in days gone by, Keiko Lee lays to rest the notion that soul is a prerogative of the Western psyche.Tackling pieces like John Lennon's"Imagine,"George Gershwin's"Summertime,"and the Louis Armstrong staple,"What A Wonderful World,"with aplomb, Lee acquits herself admirably in"This Is Keiko Lee."Indeed, it is high time that listeners equate her rich vocals, which hover in the lower registers of the music scale, with her sugar-pie looks. Her album title seems to carry an undertone of indignation -- people still doubt that a delivery dripping with such poignancy could come from a person so dainty in appearance. The incongruity aside, Lee is a credible artist who has three previous albums,"Beautiful Love,""If It's Love,"and"Kickin' It"under her belt."This Is Keiko Lee,"her latest, covers familiar ground. Silky and sensuous, her vocals wrap themselves adroitly around songs that would send an inept singer into a frenzy of overwrought melodrama and phony sentimentality.Currently Japan's most successful export to the jazz scene, Lee truly transcends the cultural divide with her raspy renditions of songs such as the sassy"Street Life,"where she effortlessly conjures up images of a bustling Manhattan alley. (Manhattan, by the way, is her favorite city in the world.)Music that you can snap your fingers to -- that's what Lee offers straight up on a silver platter, and who could possibly refuse such an appealing dish?
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