Uptown CD Review

Rhonda Head
Kayas(Independent)

Our Rating: star star star half-star

* By: Deborah Remus
* 2/02/2011 4:53 PM | Comments (0)

Kayas means "a long time ago" in Cree — and all the music on this disc really does come from the past. Rhonda Head is a professionally trained classical singer (a mezzo soprano, to be more precise), and she has a beautiful voice that’s used as if it were an instrument. Accompanied only by a piano, she starts the seven-song collection off with Vio Che Sapete, a composition by Mozart. Head also tackles pieces that are slightly more modern, such as Memory by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and her strong voice shines on a piece from Carmen. It all ends with Amazing Grace, a song even the most musically challenged should recognize. Not just anyone can sing it like this gal does.