Amanda Tosoff: Earth Voices
Empress Music

Some albums impress as special the moment they're heard, Amanda Tosoff's Earth Voices a case in point. Though her sixth album as a leader involved nine studio sessions, numerous vocal and string overdubs, post-recording shaping, and seventeen artists from multiple music scenes, it arrives so fully formed it gives the impression of having come together in one fantastic creative outburst.

In tackling the project, the Toronto-based pianist took a bolder plunge into waters she'd first entered into on her Juno Award-nominated 2016 album Words. Trusting her instincts and ridding herself of concerns about what genre slots the follow-up might fall into, Tosoff elaborated on the vocal dimension of Words, which featured Felicity Williams only, by including Emilie-Claire Barlow, Laila Biali, Michelle Willis, Lydia Persaud, Robin Dann, Alex Samaras, and, again, Williams. Smartly, Tosoff gave considerable time to matching voices to particular pieces.

Earth Voices does transcend genre. There's jazz, of course, but classical too, and with lyrics, poetry, and singers involved, the album also includes a singer-songwriter dimension. Lyrics come from poetry by Poe, Whitman, Marjorie Pickthall, and more, and compositions are split between Tosoff originals and covers of material by Joni Mitchell and Soulpepper Theatre's Mike Ross, among others. Enabling the leader is a crack ensemble whose core—Tosoff on piano with bassist Jon Maharaj and drummer Morgan Childs—is augmented by, on selected tracks, saxes (altoist Allison Au, Kelly Jefferson on soprano), guitar (Alex Goodman), and strings (violinists Aline Homzy and Jeremy Potts, violist Laurence Schaufele, cellist Beth Silver), all of who collectively account for the project's luscious chamber-jazz character.

The album opens on a remarkable high with “A Dream Within a Dream,” a sultry, high-energy workout elevated by singing saxophones and a delicious vocal by Barlow, in whose own band Tossof has played for the past five years. Lyrical playing from the leader buoys an already soaring Jefferson in his solo, but most impressive is how effectively the song folds multiple parts into a vivacious whole—not the only time that occurs. A gorgeous vocal by Dann and enveloping strings help make Luciana Souza's “Sonnet 49” (lyrics drawn from Pablo Neruda and Stephen Tapscott) an exercise in entrancement; while Tosoff contributes a solo, it's something she does rarely on the recording, her focus directed more towards other aspects of the project.

Samaras maximizes the evocative potential of Rumi's words in Tosoff's “Birdwings,” after which the Toronto singer soulfully supplicates with Biali for Ross's rapturous “Oh, Life.” Consistent with the original's a cappella treatment, Mitchell's “The Fiddle and the Drum” sees Persaud opening the song solo before elegant support appears, and with words by Whitman, Tosoff's ruminative “To a Stranger” stands out for an arrangement featuring Williams and strings only. Earth Voices ends strongly with Barlow returning for Tosoff's “Finis”(words by Pickthall), the musicians enhancing the suppleness of her voice with an uplifting performance and the song showing once again how well the pianist and singer partner.

February 2021