Canadian singer Nikki Yanofsky started out as a teen-pop phenom who loved jazz standards. Her sophomore album, Little Secret, is an amped-up version of the singer—her voice is maturing, and the music has a harder R&B edge due to original collaborations with Max Frost, Rob Kleiner, and others. While jazz fans may find her deconstruction of "Jeepers Creepers" (called “Jeepers Creepers 2.0”) jarring, she also works with mentor Quincy Jones and Herbie Hancock for a brassy variation of Jones’s “Soul Bossa Nova” called “Something New” and also does an excellent remake of a Charles Aznavour chanson, here called “Necessary Evil.”
- Catherine Russell
- Barbra Lica