Lissy Walker is a jazz singer, but her wide-ranging musical interests set her apart from your average chanteuse. She’s been an actress and singer for most of her life and brings a dramatic sensibility to her jazz vocals with nuances of folk, pop, and country in her performances. On her debut album, Life Is Sweet, Walker explores the soulful strains of The Great American Songbook, and in particular, the melancholic melodies of Irving Berlin, along with the jazz-inflected sounds of Nick Drake and Harry Nilsson, the pop balladeering of Ray Davies, and the honky-tonk rhythms of Randy Newman.

Walker’s burnished vocals have a hint of restrained passion that suggests country music, but her phrasing, which dances around before and after the beat, is pure jazz. Her low-key approach is folky at times, but raw emotion lurks just beneath the surface, adding an alluring tension to her performances.

Walker produced Life Is Sweet with bassist Jon Evans (Tori Amos, Spencer Day). The arrangements are by Walker and 2010 Grammy-nominated pianist John R. Burr (Alison Brown). Drummer Scott Amendola (Madeleine Peyroux) and Grammy-winner guitarist Scott Nygaard complete the basic quartet, with special guest appearances from cellist Philip Worman, organ player Julie Wolf (Ani DiFranco), trumpeter Steven Bernstein (Rufus Wainwright), and Dave Ellis on sax.

Wilbert Sostre, in his review for JazzTimes said, “Jazz, folk and country are fused beautifully on Lissy Walker’s debut album. Emotional, lovely, dreamy, sweet…Lissy’s vocals are simply beautiful.” David Becker of The Examiner writes, “Life Is Sweet is an eclectic riff on the vocal jazz tradition that finds Walker wrapping her sassy, playful voice around standard and not-so-standard tunes…” Lissy’s recent album release show at the new Freight & Salvage was featured in the SF Chronicle’s Datebook (“Best in Entertainment This Week”), and J. Poet of The East Bay Express also chose the performance as a Pick of the Week: ”Walker has a voice that brings out the subtle nuances of the songs she sings, with jazzy arrangements that are flavored with folk, pop, and country music.” Kirsty Evans of The East Bay Express calls the album, “Sweet indeed. Jazz songstress Lissy Walker has a distinctly sweet voice, with some impressive technical chops.”

The result is a quiet classic, with the musicians placing their restrained virtuosity in the service of Walker’s subtle vocals to deliver an album that keeps revealing its emotional and musical intensity with repeated listenings.

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