TorchSounds For Staying Home
Sounds for Staying Home arrived with a personally decorated box of scrumptious, homemade cookies that were to die for. Alas, it would have been a delight had the music been as satisfying as the sweets. Not that local vocalist Seela and her combo didn’t give it their all. They certainly deserve an A+ for truth in advertising as their name reflects the torch songs they’ve taken on, and the album title aptly describes the music’s cozy, fireside ambience. The problem is not so much that they’ve recorded a set of all-too-familiar standards, but that they haven’t added anything new to them. No one’s going to complain about chestnuts by Ellington, Gershwin, and Jobim, but if you’re going to go that route, put your own twist on the songs and make them somehow distinctive from the hundreds of other renditions out there. Seela is a singer with a lot of potential, and at times her seductive voice is quite enchanting. A few hip arrangements behind her, a couple of memorable originals or perhaps an instrumental or two for contrast would have done wonders here. The exception is a sprite romp on Miles Davis’ “Four,” a bop tune not often given a vocal workout. In the meantime, let’s hope Seela’s next project is as delicious as those cookies.
This article appears in January 24 • 2003.