(Vocal Jazz) Daniela Schachter - Purple Butterfly - 2008, APE (image+.cue), lossless

Purple Butterfly, the third CD from singer-songwriter Daniela Schächter is like manna to jazz fans ears. Her vocal palate satisfies the listeners craving for emotive-inspired swing. Schächter sings without any pre-conceptions about what these songs were like before she touched them. She does not follow other singers style, she makes her own lettering. Schächter focuses on how she can move the vocal melodies to fit her own disposition, and release her emotions through her vocal expressions. Her singing truly exhibits her own freedom of expression as she applies her own rules to where she takes her vocals.
Her vocals move outside of the melodic frames in tracks like “Autumn Leaves” and “Promise” erecting elegant arcs and graceful back-bends. The malleable turns and gingerly beaded tones in the melodic patterns produce attractive landscapes as a backdrop for her vocals. Her band which comprises of Alex Sipiagin on trumpet and flugelhorn, Joel Frahm on tenor saxophone, Massimo Biolcati on acoustic bass, and Quincy Davis on drums keep to Schächter’s vocal stride and measurements with surgical precision. Schächter also plays the piano on these tracks which adds to its manna-like bliss. Her sweeps are immaculate and the control she has over her vocal movements is pristine. Her voice is relaxing in tracks like “I Will Wait For You” and “The Days Of Wine And Roses,” exhibiting a soft temperament, and the meadow-like coloring of the title track is warm and comfy rolling through the ear passages. “The Peacocks” have a nocturnal glow, and the sprightly swagger of her vocals in “Lo Sguardo della Luna” produce a weightless vibe. Her vocal dimensions are expansive, taking them over the top at times and stretching her chords beyond the parameters of the melodies.
Daniela Schächter’s talents have been well received by the jazz community. Over the years, she has won several prestigious awards and has been the recipient of several scholarships. She has performed at a number of music festivals including the Brass Group Jazz Festival, the Umbria Jazz Fest, the Cape May Jazz Festival, the Sarasota Jazz Festival, and the Cape Cod Jazz Festival to name a few. Three albums into her solo career and Schächter is still going strong and making her mark on jazz music one that lasts.