Album Notes

She purrs, she roars, her voice subtle then huge, nuanced then powerful, her phrasing always exact. Her name’s Samirah Evans and she is a huge talent. If my words could express how I feel about these songs they would leap off the page, into your heart and mind, into your innermost feelings about jazz and what it can do. Samirah and Her Handsome Devils capture the essence of these songs, whether they’re covers you’ve heard before or new songs by Samirah and her husband, Chris Lenois. “Hot Club” may be my favorite track because it’s an original that brings New Orleans jazz into the 21st century with flair, but with a fond look back at its heritage.

To look forward and to look back: that’s what makes music great, and this music is better than great, it’s grand—like a grand piano on a terrace in New Orleans, channeled through New England on a hot summer day when the same sun that shines there shines here, the sun that shines on Samirah and her band, and makes this CD as hot as it sounded the nights they recorded it at the Vermont Jazz Center.


Wyn Cooper - Poet and Songwriter
Author of lyrics "All Want To Do" by Cheryl Crow