From the opening spiritual, ‘Oh Freedom’, Cynthia Felton's four-octave voice sweeps you up in its virtuosic embrace. On this, her third CD – following her tributes to Oscar Brown Jr. (Afro Blue) and Duke Ellington (Come Sunday) – the singer dusts down 12 favourite standards. With a bachelor of music degree from Berklee College of Music, a master of arts degree in Jazz Performance from NYU, and a doctorate in Jazz Studies from the University of Southern California, Felton has clearly immersed herself in the music, and she communicates a passion that can occasionally be entirely lacking in some vocal jazz recordings. Channelling jazz, blues and gospel, the singer delivers terrific interpretations of ‘Better Than Anything’, ‘My Love Is’ and an über-romantic ‘Lost In The Stars’ (with celestial harp accompaniment from Carol Robbins). Best of all are her impassioned readings of Duke Ellington's ‘Sound of Love’ and the classic Eddie Harris/Eddie Jefferson title track, the latter featuring an ecstatic piano solo from John Beasley.