CÉCILE McLORIN SALVANT “Oh Snap”

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ARTIST

Cécile McLorin Salvant

ALBUM TITLE

“Oh Snap”

LABEL

Nonesuch

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Although still remarkably young at thirty-six, Cécile McLorin Salvant has already released eight albums, ample evidence of a talent that revealed itself with extraordinary precocity. Her career has often been framed as the natural continuation of a lineage descending directly from the “Big Three” of jazz singing. Yet while Cécile possesses – almost supernaturally – the gifts associated with that divine trinity, she has spent much of her artistic life resisting such comparisons, sometimes playfully, sometimes with a touch of impatience.

Her artistic identity, therefore, does not lie in the imitation of the Three Divines – Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan – even though one suspects she could effortlessly inhabit any of those styles if she wished. Nor is it simply a matter of synthesis, which would seem almost reductive for an artist of such prodigious gifts.

As a result, the excellent “Anything But Now” is the album’s only unequivocally swinging track. Elsewhere, Oh Snap distinguishes itself through a creative restlessness and an almost disorienting eclecticism, driven by an unwavering search for a personal artistic path. Particularly in her live performances, Salvant has demonstrated an ability to bring together elements that might otherwise appear irreconcilable: rhythm and blues, blues in its purest form, folk-inflected songwriting such as “Take This Stone”, balladry as heard in “Expanse”, and jazz that intertwines the worlds of Monk and Toni Morrison in “What Does Blue Mean to You”.

From there, the music can suddenly burst outward through groove-driven excursions into dance music, electronics and pop, as heard in the title track. Throughout, the level of creativity and energy on display is astonishing. As Salvant herself suggests in her lyrics, she can flow like a river before erupting like a volcano.

The band follows her lead with admirable discipline, sustaining the music through a steady pulse and weaving an electronic fabric upon which the singer builds her performances. She shapes dynamics and intensity with complete authority, pushing the music toward moments of combustible release. There is never any doubt about who is directing the proceedings, and everyone involved embraces that role with complete commitment.

What is perhaps most remarkable is that all of this occurs simultaneously and with an ease that can seem almost absurd, if not faintly mischievous. Everything coexists: the seemingly superhuman virtuosity, the creative daring, the spirit of challenge, and a refined sensitivity capable of clothing serious ideas in deceptively light garments.

Perhaps Jacqueline Bisset was right when she observed that “it is indecent to speak of the gifts of the divine.”

We are personally convinced that Oh Snap is not only one of the finest albums of 2025, but also, in terms of sheer creative intelligence, one of the most significant musical statements of recent years.

Sandro Cerini

DISTRIBUTED BY

Warner

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