LAIKA FATIEN

LAÏKA FATIEN
MISERY, A TRIBUTE TO BILLIE HOLIDAY (2008)
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It's quite a risk for any jazz vocalist to record a tribute to the great Bill Holiday especially when songs like "Strange Fruit" and "Gloomy Sunday" are featured. Laïka Fatien, born in 1968 of Ivory-Coastian and Moroccan descend but born and raised in Paris, manages it with wit and taste. Audacious and assertive as well as repectful of tradition, this album created quite an enthusiastic buzz in French jazz circles when it came out. And it, indeed, is a wonderful collection where her wild and sensual voice does wonders. Exquisitely accompanied by Robert Glasper (piano), Daryl Hall (bass), Gregory Hutchinson (drums) as well as French saxophonist extraordinaire David El-Malek on 3 tracks, she offers us a classy and moving tribute to one of the goddesses of the blue note. A must hear.

1. Strange Fruit
2. Lady’s Back In Town
3. Don’t Explain
4. You Can Loose a Broken Heart (feat. David El-Malek)
5. What’s New (feat. David El-Malek)
6. All Of You
7. How Deep Is The Ocean
8. Lover Come Back To Me
9. Misery
10. You Turn The Tables On Me
11. Gloomy Sunday
12. Left Alone (feat. David El-Malek)