“Sara Serpa is a vocalist wielding an instrument as favorably unadorned and pure as any in jazz. A main reason is that with one recording in, she raises profound questions regarding the previous role of the vocalist in jazz. What’s radical, is that it’s not about the ridiculous chops or inhuman gymnastic training or trickery. She sings as an instrumentalist, as a member of an ensemble with a bold conception, moving seamlessly as would a saxophonist from melodist to soloist, or from a front line horn to an ensemble voice—not the star of some show. Serpa sounds as if she’s talking right to you, even though she’s singing, not just in terms of the intimacy quotient, but in terms of the actual sound of it—literally, she sounds as if she must sing whenever she speaks.“

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