Rickie Lee Jones, an artist who mocks the registry office

Its full title is “Pieces of Treasure (The Duchess of Coolsville)” and is ‘s fifteenth and final studio album Rickie Lee Jones. The American musician who turns 70 today introduced it by saying: “This album talks about the human being, the vision of survival, growing old, loving without stopping and loving anything”. The following is our review of the album.

Rickie Lee Jones is an artist who mocks the registry office, the American singer does not lose a shred of charisma and vocal quality over the years. This is demonstrated by her new album “Pieces of Treasure” which sees her return to the scene after a few years of recording silence.

She is certainly not the first artist to try her hand at the American Songbook, that is, that collection of songs brought to success by great performers and written by great authors, those of Tin Pan Alley and/or Broadway. Songs, pre rock’n’roll, steeped in American culture and which due to their structure, historicity, success and other reasons have ultimately become “standards”, songs that many have interpreted, each in a personal way.

For his latest album Rickie Lee Jones has decided to try his hand at this enormous heritage and he does so by choosing the jazz key, the most intimate, warm, intense one. “Pieces of Treasure” are pearls of beauty, a treasure in which the performer shows that he still has a warm, soft voice, accompanied by great interpretative skill. Jones whispers the songs, acts as a crooner, accompanied by a jazz band that blends well with her vocal and executive tones and intensity. Everything is soft but extremely effective, centered and concrete. Jones gets to the heart of the songs and brings them to the heart of the listener.

Although she is not new to the world of jazz, Rickie Lee Jones brings it to a popular level without diminishing it, but exploiting the beauty of the chosen compositions (perhaps not known to the general public). “Pieces of Treasure” is aimed at an attentive audience, a lover of beauty, who also passes through delicate atmospheres, those given by a softly blown sax or a soft piano with its sonorous brushstrokes. They are songs that “tear the heart” contained in a record to be listened to with eyes closed and in the best relaxing conditions so as to enjoy their essence.