Jazz Weekly – Carol Duboc: Open The Curtains

by George W. Harris

Carol Duboc displays a winning charm on this collection of her own tunes mixed with some covers. She’s got an optimistic lilt in her voice along with a vibrato that lures you into her lyrics. She brings together an impressive lineup of Patrice Rushen/key, Queen Cora/dr, Rhonda Smith/b, Sheila E/perc Mindi Abail/sax and Bibi McGill along with some guests here and there.

Her voice has dashes of modern R&B as the percussion simmers on “ In Pieces” and the guitars wacka wooka on “I’m Gone.” Her voice is swingingly flexible as demonstrated along with Rushen’s keyboards on the slinky “Feeling Good” and she delivers some soul grit on “Forget Me Nots.” Along with Augrey Logan’s trombone, she ads a funky feel to “Fever” and a dash of Stevie Wonder is alluded to on the synthy “Miss You Missing Me.” All throughout the album, the attitude is in the right direction, and she could easily be penning material for EWF with pieces like “Faces.” Fresh as a date with Betty from Archie Comics.

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