GINA KRONSTADT, THE KRONSTADT COLLECTIVE

In the midst of THE KRONSTADT COLLECTIVE, just she’s captured the listener’s heart and soul with her engaging, eclectic and freewheeling blend of all the musical loves of her personal and professional life – jazz, classical, R&B, disco, et al – veteran singer/songwriter Gina Kronstadt opens a poignant autobiographical window into a crossroads moment in her life with a moody, reflective track that creates an emotional safe space/centerpiece of the album.

Showcasing the depth of her sensual vocal artistry, she meditates on her current reality of having to quit playing violin three years ago because of a shoulder surgery gone wrong – after a prolific 47-year career as a first call player for hundreds of films, TV shows and performances and studio recordings. The song artfully speaks to the confusion of “Where am I? What is my life now? And what is the best way to move forward? Though coming from a very personal place, her thoughtful, insightful lyrics are truly universal in nature. Gina knows intuitively that everyone lending an ear has been in this exact space at one time or another: “I don’t know if it, I can’t stand if it fades away. . .I can’t stand if it stays the same. . .we wonder what will be, and can we heal. . .” And she offers herself and us some words of uplift and wisdom along the way: “Gotta give everything that you got and definitely have to believe.”

Though not one of the more commercial, radio friendly gems on THE KRONSTADT COLLECTION, “I Don’t Know” captures the very essence of why over the past few decades, Gina’s chosen to develop an impressive complementary career, exploring her deeper passions and musical creativity via a meaningful emergence as a multi-faceted independent artist. “In the studios as a section player, it’s your job to be one of many – to fit in, to blend in. Not to stick out. That’s the job.” Throughout her solo career, her ability to do just this has served her well as a tool she has employed purposefully on her own recordings. She says, “I think that’s why my background vocals are so comfortable and fast. I blend and phrase easily as a section. The lead then gets to do what she feels in the moment.”

Gina’s desire to create THE KRONSTADT COLLECTIVE has its roots in The Fancy Band, a 12-piece all-star ensemble that played numerous dates in Los Angeles in 2023-24. During that time, she continued to write more songs and arrangements. After they disbanded, she felt the need to document the new material. Several of the city’s top jazz musicians who played with that live band form the core of the group on the new album, including bassist Gabe Davis, drummer Gary Novak and keyboardist, Rhodes and synth master John Beasley, Gina’s self-admitted “bestie,” who inspired the album’s charming, funky and delightful jazz-soul romp “Favorite,” penned after a frolicsome night of sake and sushi.

The COLLECTIVE also includes L.A. stalwarts Felipe Fraga (percussion), Bob Sheppard (sax, flute), Lisa Dondlinger (violin), Stefanie Fife (cello) and Sarah Margaret Huff, who provides a few backing vocals on the fast thumping, high energy club version of the album’s lone cover, Sylvester’s late 70’s disco smash “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real). It’s the perfect closer, a wild, explosive excursion exploring Gina’s effortless pop vibe using her upper range and including a powerhouse solo improv by Sheppard.

This spirited dance jam is the perfect bookend to one of COLLECTIVE’s other highlights, the super sultry-sexy slow version of the same song, which allows Gina to mine the romantic emotion of the lyrics in a way the discofied twist can’t. Highlighted by Sheppard’s whimsical flute harmonies and one of many Beasley’s supercharged Rhodes solos, the track, interestingly enough, was not planned. The group was in the midst of tracking and Gina didn’t know her mic was on when she spontaneously started singing at this much slower tempo. Novak immediately counted it off with no click and it came to serendipitous life. Side note/fun fact: James Wirrick, who co-wrote the tune with Sylvester, has given it a hearty thumbs up. Listen to it and just try not to sway along. How could he not?

One of the great sonic wonders Gina brings to her singing and songwriting is the willingness to take chances and freedom to mix up various styles on a single track, as she does with the fascinating opening piece “Feel Something.” It’s a slice of musical surrealism inspired by the docuseries The Warhol Diaries, which touched on Andy Warhol’s album artwork for jazz luminaries like Monk, Count Basie and Kenny Burrell. The track begins with dreamy angelic vocal harmony textures, then explodes into a bustling, furious, jazzy and classically tinged jam spotlighting bass, drums, strings, sax and those fiery Beasley keys. When Gina speak/sings, “I’ve just got to feel something” over and over, she’s making sure we listeners do as well.

Perhaps as an ode to her own decades of success as a violinist, Gina introduces the steamy and ambient (and slightly scary!) romantic ballad “tenderBox” with gorgeous violin and cello before reflecting wistfully on the “ambivalent haze” of wanting and falling for someone she (and we by extension) simply shouldn’t. She penned one of COLLECTIVE’s other ambivalent, will he or won’t he love songs, the snappy, rapid bustling “Don’t Say,” on a creative whim when a well-known drummer who had attended a few of Gina’s life shows told her she should add another uptempo song to her show. It’s a mission gamely accomplished by this hypnotic adventure.  

Gina says that each of her albums reflects a continuation of her life journey, whether it be in love, friendship or sometimes based on the way the political winds are blowing. In response to an especially fraught time on the sociopolitical front in America, she blesses us listeners with the hopeful and uplifting mid-tempo jazz/R&B anthem “Shine,” which was inspired by, as she says, “how life is now. How some days are so difficult, but more than ever, we need to pull ourselves up to make a positive difference in the world, for ourselves and others.”

Over another seductive groove, she speaks her truth to the moment from the start: “I keep thinking, hoping and visualizing and praying that things will change, that everyone everywhere will realize that we are one people…” And then she sings, with emphatic power, the essential message – that “we’ve got to shine our light every time…”