from Paul de Barros’ Seattle Times column:
Jazz critics tend to be cynical about female singers — there are so many bad ones! — so when a CD like Jackie Ryan’s “Passion Flower” arrives, as it did five years ago, it’s an occasion for cheering out loud.
Ryan’s the real item. She doesn’t just sing beautifully and in tune, but with the kind of conviction that makes you feel her life depended on your understanding what she was saying.
Back in 2002, there were only a few of us cheering.
With her most recent disc, “You and the Night and the Music,” this outstanding San Francisco Bay Area artist has finally started to get some traction.
The disc perched atop the 2007 radio airplay charts for six months and catapulted her to appearances at Dizzy’s, the wonderful New York nightclub, and — better for us — finally, to Seattle.
Continue reading at The Seattle Times.