For those unaware, vocalist Tania Grubbs crafts stories out of well-chosen songs with love and care and lets the listener feel the spirit behind each note.

Her voice is an integral instrument in a quintet of equals, a guiding thread that weaves everyone together whether singing a warm, engaging note, a challenging phrase, an especially stirring arrangement, a soulful turn, or hopeful sentiment.

The Sound of Love by the Tania Grubbs Quintet, their second offering after 2020’s Live at Maureen’s, is a carefully curated selection of songs including standards, lesser-heard jazz tunes, and some original material - all presented in a manner that sounds like a live performance. Contemporary Fusion Reviews said about Live at Maureen’s, “I can tell you right now, you haven’t heard jazz vocals this exciting in a long, LONG time.”

The stellar quintet seemingly reads each other’s intent in building sounds. This is songcraft at its finest - even more impressive is that the entire album was recorded in a day.

The band, who all have ties to Pittsburgh, includes pianist DAVID BUDWAY (Branford Marsalis, Michael Brecker, Hubert Laws), bassist JEFF GRUBBS (Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Kenny Burrell, Joe Williams), guitarist RON AFFIF (Kenny Kirkland, Roy Hargrove, Jeff “Tain” Watts), and drummer JAMES JOHNSON III (Kenny Garrett, Benny Golson, Ahmad Jamal).

1. But Not For Me (3:24)
2. Slow Hot Wind (4:58)
3. (A Rhyme) This Time (4:33)
4. Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love (5:56)
5. Strange Meadowlark (4:51)
6. The Sculptor’s Hands (3:58)
7. Something To Live For (3:26)
8. Blackbird (3:40)
9. Sunshine on My Shoulders (5:24)
10. I Can Tell You Are Always There (6:12)
11. Four (3:51)
12. Dreamsville (3:58)
13. If You Could See Me Now (4:57)
14. Two For The Road (4:07)

Led by Tania’s silky voice, she opens the album on the playfully flirtatious, at first vocal/drum duet, latterly scintillating piano rendition of Chet Baker’s But Not For Me and an all-embracing version of Henry Mancini’s Slow Hot Wind and then we get brought forth one of my own personal favorites here, the catchy and dulcetly arranged Al Jarreau track (A Rhyme) This Time, a simply heavenly Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love (“I think “Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love” is just one of the most beautiful melodies ever written by Charles Mingus, or any composer, for that matter,” Tania admits), before the spirited duet for voice and bass track Strange Meadowlark (Dave Brubeck), her impassioned original The Sculptor’s Hands (which was itself inspired by Internationally acclaimed Pittsburgh-based wood sculptor/jazz lover Thaddeus Mosley), with the emotive Billy Strayhorn classic Something To Live For along next.

Up next is Tania’s flourishing version of the Lennon/McCartney classic Blackbird and the lavishly pleasing John Denver cut Sunshine on My Shoulders and they are in turn followed seamlessly by the sumptuous I Can Tell You Are Always There (Budway and Pittsburgher Lou Tracy), a scatting take on Mile Davis’ 1954 jazz standard Four, the low slung, gentle foot-tapper Dreamsville (Henry Mancini), the collection rounding out on the sheer elegance within the 1946 jazz standard, composed by Tadd Dameron, and which was written especially for vocalist Sarah Vaughan, If You Could See Me Now, coming to a close on the Henry Mancini song Two For The Road, here resculpted as a delicate duet with Tania and Budway.

THE SOUND OF LOVE is available today, October 4th, 2024, and is now available at Bandcamp and on all streaming platforms. Physical CDs are available at www.TaniaGrubbs.com.

Official Bandcamp Purchase Link