This is 25-year-old <person>Arianna Neikrug</person>’s debut album, and a startling experience it can be, if you’re unprepared for it. Instead of the customary glossy full orchestra there is a piano trio, and the pianist (also arranger and producer) is <person>Laurence Hobgood</person>, for 20 years a close musical confidant of <person>Kurt Elling</person>. Between them they virtually rewrote the rulebook for jazz singing and raised technique to virtuoso level.
This is the point at which <person>Neikrug</person>, winner of the 2015 <person>Sarah Vaughan</person> international vocal competition, enters the scene. From the first half-minute it’s obvious that notes are no problem as she pitches immaculately over some very unlikely chords. The song is No Moon at All, famously recorded in 1955 by <person>Julie London</person>, and <person>Hobgood</person> is noted for doing radical things to old songs. As the set proceeds, through numbers associated with <person>Al Green</person>, the Jackson Five, <person>Joni Mitchell</person> and others, plus two attractive if slightly wordy originals, the scale of <person>Neikrug</person>’s talent becomes apparent. Her grip on time is quite extraordinary, and her scat singing totally convincing. It’s all a little intense, but as a display of endless potential hugely impressive.