Wish Me Love

Review: (1) is a throwback to the Fifties, a classic vocal and orchestra album. American expatriate Dee Daniels is teamed with the Dutch Metropole Orchestra which has the ability to either swing like a big band or be a lush and romantic string ensemble. They cover both sides in interesting arrangements by Rob Pronk and John Clayton Jr. Daniels’ big, gospel-tinged voice is backed by a wide, cinematic sweep on “Time After Time,” a pulsing and spiritual horn sound on “God Bless The Child” and, best of all, a string arrangement for “Sweet Georgia Brown” that starts with ominous strings, switches to a bebop feel on the verses and even puts Charlie Parker quotes into the instrumental break. Daniels is an expressive and dramatic singer throughout and the entire CD is a feast of imaginative arranging and great singing.

Review: Great evergreens and power-packed big-band arrangements provide a vast musical stage for the four-octave range of Dee Daniels. Whether the Canadian vocalist is belting out “Sweet Georgia Brown,” crooning “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” caressing “Time After Time” or swinging “Come Rain or Come Shine,” Daniels conveys the sense that she means every word of every song. The European or-chestra, conducted by Rob Pronk, works each jazz classic to the max, merging brass choirs, elegant strings and dynamic rhythm work into a rich landscape.

Review: Given good big-band arrangements, a singer with sure interpretive instincts can’t help blos-soming. Imagine, then, how well Dee Daniels flourishes with the lavish Metropole Orchestra behind her, its string component as integral to the sound as its brass, reeds and rhythm. Daniels’ voice, brought up in the idiom of the black church, is evocative of Sarah Vaughan’s in its wide range and thrilling vibrato. She is bold but never bizarre in putting a personal spin on such standards as How Long Has This Been Going On and Come Rain or Come Shine. Rob Pronk, the swinging Dutchman behind the Metropole phenomenon, and John Clayton Jr. share arranging duties in this program of 10 songs, including two co-written by Daniels. Particularly effective is a monumental version of God Bless the Child, with its anxious waltz tempo giving way to all-out gospel exaltation in the final measures.

Review: Dee Daniels is one of Vancouver’s unknown treasures. At home with blues, ballads, jazz or gospel, and possessing great power and range, she is an artist worthy of further attention. Her backup on WISH ME LOVE (Mons) is no less than the Metropole Orchestra from Holland (Daniels lived in that country in the early 1980’s). While the strings occasionally muddy things, and one song is sub-par (the poppish Love Inside), there’s no denying Daniels’ talents. Her version of God Bless The Child contains enormous feeling, and the final few notes raise goosebumps on the listener. When she sings How Long Has This Been Going On? she sounds like a woman discovering something about herself. She shouts out Tonight I Won’t Be Singing No Blues with revival-hall fervor. I prefer to hear her in a small-group setting, but big-production Daniels is better than no Daniels at all.