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Stories   >   Kavita Shah - Visions / AXS review

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Kavita Shah - Visions / AXS review

Posted: June 10, 2014

Kavita Shah's new album, Visions, is exactly as she intended: jazz as viewed through an enchanted prism. All 15 compositions, including a bonus track, force the listener to open up another channel of perception. It's all jazz, but played with global enlightenment, transforming jazz into a revelatory, blossoming dream just on the other side of the world.

Released on Inner Circle Music May 27, 2014, Shah's new album contains a lavish collection of tough covers and splendid originals. The difference is in this New York City-based vocalist's singularly individual and personalized approach to the material by such formidable artists as Joni Mitchell ("Little Green") and Stevie Wonder ("Visions").

Her ace in the hole is where she comes from and the world she embraces. Not content to play her standards straight, Shah - whose paternal grandfather traveled from his native Mumbai to New York in the 1940s - comes by the globally expansive, multi-styles naturally. Her parents emigrated to New York, raising her to love all kinds of music. "I didn't grow up in a traditional household," Shah said. "My parents wanted to expose me to music, an opportunity they didn't have growing up, but not just to Hindi film songs or Indian classical music. They immigrated to New York in the 1970s, so there was a lot of pop in the house: The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra." READ THE FULL AXS REVIEW.