Curt's Jazz Cafe

A while back I was roaming around Manifest Records here in Charlotte and I came across a couple of used CDs by a lady named Paula West.  I had seen them in the bins for a few months but had always passed them by.

On this day, there was a BOGO Sale; so to fill out my order, I decided to pick up the two CDs by Ms. West – Temptation and Restless.

I was floored by the richness of her voice, her masterful phrasing and her song choices, which were a nice mixture of the familiar and the refreshingly different. I became an instant fan and I kicked myself for letting those two discs languish in those bins for as long as I did.

Though she has come East on occasion, Paula West is based in the Bay Area and is relatively unknown outside of San Francisco. Hopefully that will change soon.

A few weeks back while listening to her most recent disc, Live at Jazz Standard, I impulsively tweeted that “Paula West was the best jazz singer that you’ve probably never heard”. I got a surprising number of retweets and agreements, so it’s nice to see that the lady does have a growing fan base.

But don’t take my word for it. See and hear for yourself. You can thank me later.

This entry was posted on September 22, 2012 at 11:12 pm and is filed under The Jazz Continues..., Who's New in Jazz with tags Jazz Singers, paula west. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.