MAJA JAKU, Blessed & Bewitched

Kosovo born vocalist and songwriter Maja Jaku has made exquisitely intimate and charmingly swinging jazzy waves in her native Europe for years, touring with her trio, performing with the Austrian fusion band Attack, performing in musicals and releasing four acclaimed albums.

On her intriguingly titled debut American collection Blessed and Bewitched, she shares those magnificent, deeply lived vocal passions and cool soulful strutting with U.S. audience for the first time, artfully collaborating with a creatively intuitive quartet featuring trumpeter Michael Rodriguez, pianist Alan Bartus (a semi-finalist in the Herbie Hancock Piano Competition), bassist Dezron Douglas and drummer Jonathan Blake.

With sparse arrangements that let her alternately dusky and exuberant emotional energy take center stage, Jaku builds off the foundations of two beautifully rendered standard ballads (“Never Let Me Go,” “Everything Must Change”) to showcase the immense depth of her artistry as a singer/songwriter of vision via her five originals, including the haunting opener “The Witch,” the confident, defiant and visceral “I’m a Queen” (which also features her intoxicating scat and a lush trumpet solo) and “Blessing Will Come,” a snappy, sashaying burst of optimism that hints towards a vibrant future for the artist.