Debby Yeager - Welcome

"Debby Yeager called me from out of the blue soliciting liner notes. I didn't know her, never heard her sing and was not particularly predisposed to reviewing or writing about vocalists in the first place. But there was something about her persuasive manner on the phone that led me to check out her tape. She told me she had produced and financed the project herself. Frankly, I was expecting the worst. Cabaret fluff interspersed with the occasional jazz standard rendered with the stiffness of someone who didn't know Bob Dorough from Bob Barker. BOY WAS I WRONG!

Ms. Yeager delivers these 12 tunes with the inherent soulfulness and shrewd sense of syncopation that mark all great jazz singers. Her phrasing exudes a relaxed confidence and musicality that conjures up such classy singers as Annie Ross and Flora Purim. And, oh yes, she knows who Bob Dorough is. He appears here singing alongside Debby on a reworking of the 1968 classic Nothing Like You.