Next Year’s Song Review

by Matt Micucci
jazziz.com

CeCe Gable shares her sincere hopeful message after recent times of hardships.

Vocalist CeCe Gable is a self-proclaimed late bloomer in jazz. Over the past three decades, she has honed her craft in the recording studio and on the road, performing in various clubs and venues nationally and internationally. Over the course of this period, she has gained widespread recognition as a stellar interpreter of classics from the Great American Songbook and has established a reputation as a sincere storyteller. Her latest album, Next Year’s Song, was released earlier this year and feels like another landmark addition to an already exceptional recorded body of work. It certainly helps that her new full-length finds her in the company of some truly elite jazz musicians, including guitarist Roni Ben-Hur, pianist Alan Broadbent, bassist Harvie S and drummer Matt Wilson.

On Next Year’s Song, Gable and her band of first-rate collaborators offer new arrangements of carefully selected standards and even offer new interpretations of numbers from Broadbent’s own acclaimed songbook. The record opens with a warm and sophisticated title track that marks the first songwriting collaboration between Gable, who wrote its heartfelt lyrics, and Harvie S, who wrote the music. Reflecting the times of hardships recently experienced during the times of the pandemic, “Next Year’s Song” is a lightly swinging, poignant waltz sharing hopeful thoughts for a better year ahead. Such feelings of auspicious optimism are delivered by Gable’s mature sincerity and reflected in the song’s opening line: “Next year’s song brings us peace and harmony, lighting up years ahead.”