New York jazz singer and composer Lola Danza has a background in avant-garde jazz and, before that, in classical singing. Active on the New York scene since 2007, when she arrived from Boston and Berkelee School of Music studies, the singer has immersed herself in predominantly free jazz performance. Already attracted to the idea of free improvisation in Boston, Danza  progressed to completely free expression with an album released in 2009 entitled Live Free (Evolver, 2009). The record was of a quartet live performance at Boston's Ryles Club, where Danza allowed her voice to range freely over her four octave vocal span, while her musicians followed their own collective muses as the group created long sound works that the singer left untitled and un-dubbed.

Before her move to New York and her freer experiments, however, Danza led an essentially melodic, song-based group in Boston with the unusual line-up of two double basses behind voice and trumpet. The group's gigs attracted a following, and she recorded the lyrical music they were playing (largely her own compositions) on an album of ethereal yet precise vocals pirouetting against the basses, entitled Vision Quest (Evolver, 2005).

Vision Quest is a substantial statement. The two bassists are John Lockwood and Garth Stevenson, and their instruments sit under and color Danza's questioning vocals. The classical-like soundscape is completed by trumpet Phil Grenadier, with occasional accordion (Todd Marston) and percussion (the legendary Boston figure Nat Mugavero). Danza was inspired to write the music by a relationship breakdown, and the titles of some of the songs trace the subject. Finding solace in the creation of music (the best reaction to such events), Danza created a personable masterpiece.

Lyrical and softly murmuring trumpet begins the album on "The Unheard Song," then Danza's voice, enunciating wordless vocals, joins the elegant and reflective melody. The attractive theme plays until a free passage with basses and trumpet, which settles into the theme as the trumpet percolates variations on it. Danza brings in the main tune again. Finally, a bass sits on the dominant until the piece fades to the accompaniment of a rocking bass figure until the resolution. It has a unique title, which perhaps asks, "What was heard, and what did I miss—should I listen again in case part of the message escaped me?"

Danza's individualistic take on Radiohead's "Motion Picture Soundtrack" is the second track, and it is probably better then the original by the British band. Radiohead writes interesting music, and have even seen an entire album of classical versions of its tunes in an arrangement written and recorded superbly by Christopher O'Riley. Danza communicates the tune by, again, wordless vocals, set over the ticking of a movie projector and an accordion. Without words in the way, the tune really bounces across, emphasizing the ultimate hegemony of music over words in music. Though Radiohead's lyrics are thought-provoking, its song titles are probably really the thing to focus on, and of course the music. Danza's version enables the music to be absorbed, and the music is the real point of this composition.

As a composer, that is Danza's ultimate focus. This version is more potent than the original, or, as a catch-phrase of Monty Python once said, "It makes you think." At over five minutes, there is plenty of variation.

The third track is entitled "JKL," for bassist Lockwood. He begins the haunting music solo and is soon joined by his co-bassist Stevenson. Danza's voice enters, and sets up the high and long arc of the piece—it is well over seven minutes in length— with quasi-Asian quasi-Bjork statements. This tune is the first of the longer free improvisations on the album, but there is no meandering. The intense focus is maintained throughout, mainly by Danza's tuneful and meaningful melodic fragments and longer lines. She gives the impression of speaking, yet the notes are still wordless.

Midway, the interaction between voice and bass sounds like a conversation. Arco bass joins to carry the music to a new locale, and in its finale Danza relaxes into a kind of reflective commentary on what has gone before. The tune is now revealed to be a binary piece. The instruments, which of course include Danza's voice, fade to leave thought-provoking space, silence.

As if to explain the music so far, Danza's fourth track is a cover of Beck's "It's All In Your Mind," from his Sea Changes (Geffen, 2002) album. Danza says that she found a lot in this Beck album, and notes that a surprise relationship breakup was also behind his record, just as it was the trigger for hers.