Her voice brimming with breathy sensuality and atmospheric beauty, Tokeli (http://www.tokeli.com) will keep you up at night. After all, this collection of jazz standards is best appreciated in the late evening hours as stars are draped across the midnight-blue skies.Whether you're feeling loved or loveless, Tokeli hits the spot, caressing the heart with the softest touch.
Tokeli has a magnificent voice, able to command different languages with the same playfulness and passion. Tokeli is equally effective on both upbeat and slower numbers. There have been countless jazz vocalists that have tackled timeless, hauntingly pretty music as this, but rarely do you find them able to make the songs their own; you end up thinking about how other, more masterful artists did it. The same cannot be said for Tokeli, who sings with the confidence and maturity of someone who has completely absorbed these tunes.
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Using her voice to let the words slyly roll from her tongue, Tokeli's technical skills cannot be praised enough. Just as important, though, is the expression of her emotions; these are not generic, paint-by-number renditions. On the title track and "Someday," Tokeli's rainy-day romanticism is moving and utterly spellbinding.
Just as impressive is the tightness of her band, especially the plucky bass of Mark Leighton and the robust, energetic percussion of her various drummers.
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