Liz McComb has been packing out European houses for years, celebrated in Paris and embraced at the Montreux Jazz Festival. But “Soul, Peace & Love” is her first American release in over five years. That’s OK, it was worth the wait, every measure of it.
GVE/Sunnyside Records released “Soul, Peace & Love” on March 13th, with a musical message of deep brotherhood at its heart. And if you think I’m exaggerating, consider the album’s wonderfully diverse guests. Opener “Peacemakers” is part Beatitude, part “We Are the World,” backed by Parisian school kids, followed tellingly by a distinctly Dixieland take on “Oh When the Saints,” featuring the stellar rap talents of Tony Dorsey. McComb shows off her legitimate jazz chops on the earthy “Come Back Lover,” before moving confidently into the old school frenzy of “God Made a Miracle.” A mournful cello backs her jazz interpretation of “Silver and Gold,” and “You Ain’t Christian Enough” is both funky and funny.
“By the Rivers of Babylon” serves up international doo-wop with the Guadaloupe vocals of the Dyapason Quartet, and its deep-fried blues all the way on “The Rich Man.” “Can’t Nobody Know My Trouble” closes things out with more bluesy southern soul, and you have to look around the room to remember that you haven’t left the house. Lots of artists talk about global world music, but Liz McComb brings it home for real with “Soul, Peace & Love.”
