L.A. Jazz Scene Newspaper, July 2004

By Russell Arthur Roberts

Seldom enamored by the good many jazz vocalists who these days are competing for their place under the sun, these two tasteful Southland vocalists, Lulee Fisher and Heather Evans, are as deserving as most any. (Be known, the cool likes of Terri Southern, Peggy Lee, Mr. B., and Lady Day make up the standard by which I judge jazz vocalists. As they say: "It is in the nuance.")

  Contrary to the trend in popular music, where singers think they have to warble and stretch sounds to their breath-catching limits in order to connect with their audiences, Evans and Fisher make every note worthy of the message in the lyrics. And wasteful not, as well, are the several fine backing groups (each singer employing more than one) made up from Southern California's plentitude of pros.

 Although both tackle a goodly number of tunes from the Great American Songbook, the only point where they intersect is on the Mercer/Van Heusen standard "I Thought About You." And though both interpretations are emotionally moving portrayals, the differences tend to be a microcosm of the overall distinctions between the approaches of two singers and their resultant albums. Fisher's "In Love Again" is a highly polished studio production, especially noticeable in the slick arrangements and greater variety of instrumentalists (using as many as seven on one track) she employs. Evans\ "A Little Thing Called Love, " on the other hand, backed by no more than four on half the tunes, and just a trio for the other half, has a more immediate sound. It gives you the feeling as though you are actually close up in a jazz club. Contributing to the feeling is the intimacy of Evans\ husky voice, sometimes bordering on the lusty, as she effectively demonstrates on "You Go to My Head, " and very much again on the bluesy "Texas Boy Meets California Girl, " by local songwriter and friend Page Jackson. Her voice intoning a simmering sensuality has surely with some the ability to stir one's more basic emotions.

 The Evans album is particularly distinguished by the clever writing of pianist/lyricist Jane Getz, who too plays on half of the 10-tuned program with bluesy tenor saxophonist Rickey Woodard, bassist Chris Colangelo, and drummer Don Littleton. Evans\ backing on the remainder is Frank Collett, piano; bassist Richard Simon; and drummer Sherman Ferguson. Aside from the Getz numbers, how often these days do you hear the joyous Arlen/Mercer "Hit the Road to Dreamland" or the better "That Old Devil Moon" (by Burton Lane/Y. Harburg), which, wonderfully presented here, seems to be made for jazz? And it's hard to forget her forlorn treatment of "I Get Along Without You Very Well, " by Hoagy Carmichael and Jane Brown Thompson.