Dreams and Daggers

This album finds vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant mainly at the Village Vanguard, a setting that captures every nuance of her swinging, wry, and sometimes comic style. Pianist Aaron Diehl, bassist Paul Sikivie, and drummer Lawrence Leathers, no mere backing band, are full creative partners as they interpret Noël Coward, Kurt Weill, Bob Dorough, Bessie Smith, and others. Affording a striking and somewhat haunted contrast to the live material are six brief tracks that feature Salvant in the studio with the Catalyst Quartet, a string group orchestrated by Sikivie.