Veronica Ferreiro comes from Galicia in Northern Spain, but now lives and works out of Madrid where she’s a popular attraction on the Spanish capital’s thriving jazz scene. She’s been working on this, her debut album, since 2008. Clearly she works in a painstaking way and has the determination to get everything right – even a quick listen makes that self-evident. The ten tracker has a real polish and production values are high. The music is the lady’s take on jazz – with a Spanish twist, though in places there’s a real soul undercurrent that recalls the work of the great Carmen Lundy or Tania Maria.
Most of the songs are sung in Spanish but (despite the language problem) the music communicates through its passion and in its groove. The two songs that open the set are particularly strong. The LP’s title cut gets things going. It’s an upright bass-led item with a laid back feel while what follows – ‘Non Quero Crer’ (a duet with Carmen Rey, who wrote the song) is a gentle and relaxing swayer. Both cuts feature some sparkling piano from Ruben Garcia. ‘Riverside’ has a gospel feel about it, very different to the enigmatic, lengthy ’20’ which is fragmented and complex – not an easy listen.
The best of the English items is the atmospheric ‘Floating Lovers’. It’s spacey and eerie and a great prelude to the beautifully sung ballad ‘Please Don’t Fall In Love’. Interesting too is the album’s closer – ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ which (as you can see) combines German and Spanish lyrics… an adventurous idea and for those who like discovering adventurous vocal jazz, ‘Laio’ is worth investigating. You can do so @ www.veronicaferreiro.com
(BB) 3/5
