In her third album, the Washington DC singer applies her mezzo-soprano, swing, taste and pure intonation to 10 songs written between 1918 and 1939, with a futuristic side trip to 1950 and Duke In another duet, with pianist Chris Grasso, she uses a superb sense of dynamics to explore the sense of loss and wracking emotion in Irving Berlin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Suppertime.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d When guitarist Paul Pieper and drummer Lenny Robinson make the band a quintet on the Gershwins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fascinating Rhythm\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and Layton and Creamer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153After You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve Gone,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the sentiment is exhilaration. Any singer electing to interpret \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I Cover the Waterfront\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has Billie Holiday looking over her shoulder. Ms. Seikaly avoids imitation. Indeed, she achieves the individuality that Ms. Holiday was known to urge on singers who tried to sound like her. This video was shot as she recorded the song.<\/p>\n![\"Seikaly](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Seikaly-Looking-Back.jpg\")
<\/a>Ellington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Love You Madly.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She scats her way into the Ellington anthem, which, until Ms. Seikaly got hold of it, was pretty much under the sole ownership of Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Williams. The performance is a duet with bassist Zack Pride. He walks her briskly along and takes a brief, impressive solo. Her scatting is based not on the unfocused desire to be hip that leads so many inexperienced singers to grief, but on fidelity to harmonic principles. <\/p>\n