If Arlee Leonard was an alto saxophonist instead of a singer, she would inspire comparisons to Cannonball Adderley or Lou Donaldson instead of Paul Desmond. While Desmond was expressive in a subtle, restrained sort of way, those other altoists are known for a more aggressive and hard-swinging approach. And the term "hard-swinging" certainly describes Wild Honey, Leonard's debut album. Emotionally, Leonard doesn't hold back on this CD. She is a gritty, soulful, big-voiced belter who brings a lot of blues feeling to well-known standards, as well as original songs. Some of the standards that Leonard tackles on Wild Honey have been done to death, but to her credit, she doesn't spend all of her time embracing overdone warhorses. In fact, she does a fair amount of writing on this album; Leonard wrote or co-wrote about half of the 12 selections herself, and she shows herself to be a talented composer on gritty originals like "Sista's Blues (Blue Is What I Am)" and "Tokens of Appreciation." These days, many jazz vocalists don't do any composing at all -- they would rather crank out yet another version of an overdone Tin Pan Alley standard. So when a jazz singer does as much writing as Leonard does on Wild Honey, one takes notice. What type of listener would appreciate this album? Basically, the sort of listener who appreciates an aggressively soulful approach to jazz singing -- someone who fancies Dianne Reeves' more jazz-oriented work could easily get into Wild Honey. That isn't to say that this 1999 date is in a class with Reeves' best albums; Leonard still has some growing and developing to do. But Wild Honey is an enjoyable and promising, if imperfect, start -- and it indicates that Leonard has a great deal of potential. by Alex Henderson
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