Since the release of her captivating debut, 2009’s Dangerous Liaisons, jazz vocalist Sylvia Brooks has displayed a gift for inhabiting different personas, with a subspecialty in film-noir-inspired femmes fatale. On her fourth album, Signature, she embraces the most challenging role of all, defining herself with a set of beautifully crafted original songs. Her evocative lyrics and emotionally direct delivery imbue the music with hard-won authenticity. Whether looking back with wry affection on her walk-on-the-wild-side youth or lamenting a lost love, Brooks brings bracing honesty and poise to the material. Like on her previous album, 2017’s The Arrangement, she’s keeping company with the Southland’s most creative accompanists. The stellar rhythm section tandem of drummer Ray Brinker and bassist Trey Henry on almost every track. And ace pianists Tom Ranier, Jeff Colella, and Christian Jacob designed beguiling, harmonically rich settings for her incisive lyrics. The cautionary tale “Red Velvet Rope” is a bit of a feint. It’s set to a sensuous Latin groove by cuatro master Kiki Valera, scion of a legendary Cuban musical clan. But aside from that Afro-Cuban jaunt, she’s swaying through swingtown, from the witty “Catch 22” to the passionately romantic “The Flea Markets of Paris.” The two songs she includes by other artists, Melody Gardot’s bluesy, organ-driven “Your Heart Is as Black as Night” and the Leonard Cohen/Sharon Robinson erotic lament “Boogie Street” seem to raise the temperature of her own work. Signature isn’t her maiden voyage as a songwriter. Brooks included three impressive originals on The Arrangement, but this album marks a quantum leap reflecting years of concentrated effort. “I really worked hard on trying to make the stories deeper and richer,” she says. “Each song is really a story within itself.” - Andrew Gilbert
Produced by Sylvia Brooks
Recorded at Dragonfly Creek Recording Studios
Engineered, mixed, and mastered by Charley Pollard
Vocals By Sylvia Brooks
Photography by Aaron Rapaport
1. Your Heart Is as Black as Night
Written by Melody Gardot
Nikos Syropoulos- Piano/ Organ
Ivan Edwards- Drums
Jamie Arent- Guitar
Cooper Appelt- Bass
 
2. Catch 22
Written by Sylvia Brooks & Jeff Colella
Jeff Colella- Piano
Ray Brinker- Drums
Trey Henry- Bass
Tom Luer- Bass Clarinet/Alto Sax
 
3. Red Velvet Rope
Written by Sylvia Brooks & Susan Marder
Arranged by Kiki Valera
Piano- Tom Ranier
Kiki Valera- Cuban Cuatro Guitar
Aaron Serfaty- Drums & Percussion
Kevin Axt- Bass
Jeff Bunell- Trumpet
David Richards- Sax
Brian Scanlon- Trumpet
Rap- written & Performed by Perro Lou

4. Over and Done
Written by Sylvia Brooks & Jeff Colella
Jeff Colella- Piano
Ray Brinker- Drums
Trey Henry- Bass
5. The Boy That Lived There
Written by Sylvia Brooks & Tom Ranier
Tom Ranier- Piano
Ray Brinker- Drums
Trey Henry- Bass
John Waltz- Cello
Mike Kaufman- Cello
Background Vocals arranged and performed by Jackie Smiley & Leah Williams
 
6. Sixteen
Written by Sylvia Brooks & Tom Ranier
Tom Ranier- Piano
Ray Brinker- Drums
Trey Henry- Bass
 
7. The Flea Markets of Paris
Written by Sylvia Brooks & Christian Jacob
Arranged by Christian Jacob
Christian Jacob- Piano
Trey Henry- Bass
David Witham- Accordion
 
8. Holding Back Tears
Written by Sylvia Brooks & Christian Jacob
Christian Jacob- Piano
Ray Brinker- drums
Trey Henry- Bass
Strings arranged by Christian Jacob

9. Boogie Street
Written by Leonard Cohen & Sharon Robinson
Arranged by Jeff Colella
Jeff Colella- Piano
Tom Ranier- Piano
Ray Brinker- Drums
Trey Henry- Bass
John Waltz- Cello
Stefanie Fife- Cello
Background Vocals arranged and performed by Jackie Smiley & Leah Williams 
Record Label
Rhombus Records
Management
Max Net Entertainment Group
Jerald Bergh
310-968-9070
Press
Scott Thompson
203-400-1818
Press & Publicity
Scott Thompson PR
Radio Promotion
New World N Jazz
West Coast
Neal Sapper
415-895-5527
Radio Promotion
New World N Jazz
East Coast
Matt Hughes
732-835-5050
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