It's That Girl Again [PA]

Performer: Basia
Producer: Danny White & Linda Nail; Basia Trzetrzelewska; Danny White; Basia Trzetrzelewska
Distributor: E1 Distribution (USA)

Notes: Personnel: Peter White (guitar, guitars); Andy Ross (guitar); Paul Booth, Ian Kirkham (saxophone); Kevin Robinson (trumpet, flugelhorn, French horn, background vocals); Fayyaz Virji (trombone); Danny White, Danny White & Linda Nail (keyboards); Marc Parnell (drums); Mark Reilly (background vocals). Audio Mixer: Dave Bascombe. Audio Remasterer: Richard Bull. "That girl" is the singer Basia, aka Barbara Trzetrzelewska, the Polish-born singer who's found great international success both as a solo artist and with the U.K. band Matt Bianco. IT'S THAT GIRL AGAIN follows a near 15-year dearth of Basia solo material, and it continues in her usual style of Latin-tinged, effortlessly funky jazz-pop. As usual, she is accompanied here by her partner-in-music, Danny White. It's been 15 years since Basia Trzetrzelewska and her partner and collaborator Danny White issued the criminally under-heralded The Sweetest Illusion, her final album for Epic. Since that time, she's popped up on a few instrumental mix albums and as a guest vocalist on Matt Bianco's Matt's Mood, but other than compilations, this wonderfully inventive singer and songwriter of adult contemporary music disappeared from the scene. It's That Girl Again showcases the Polish songstress in a variety of settings over 13 new tracks. A host of crack session players join her core band, including White -- her co-writer on most tunes -- Mark Reilly, guitarist Peter White, and a chorus made up of Basia's family and friends. The set opens with "If Not Now Then When," a clever reintroduction to Basia's sound with a slew of new ideas including the use of bossa nova rhythms. Guitars and acoustic keyboards permeate the mix rather than some of the more synthetic '80s and '90s sounds of her earlier records. The lyrics are the same, positive, emotive tomes about honesty, fulfillment, intimacy, and determination she has always employed. "A Gift" is a surprisingly candid tune, about taking another's love for granted and becoming aware of the error before it's too late. The languid acoustic and electric guitars, the gently skittering loops and hand percussion all flavor a lyric of uncommon candor. "Everybody's on the Move" is true, big dancefloor modern funk that is ripe for dozens of remixes. In essence, while on some level hers is a sound close to the one that garnered her platinum album sales in decades past, there is plenty that is new here, including much more sophisticated rhythms, a more adventurous use of Latin, jazz, and Brazilian (particularly the latter) styles as they meld seamlessly with her brand of Eastern European pop, and a more poetic and focused way of writing lyrics, all wrapped up in that gorgeous voice of hers and in White's arrangements. This is as welcome a comeback record as any we've heard in recent years. In fact, It's That Girl Again goes so far as to make us remember just how much we missed her in the first place. ~ Thom Jurek

JazzTimes (p.76) - "Basia and her collaborator Danny White continue the Latin and jazz formula with IT'S THAT GIRL AGAIN, an appealing breeze of moods and vibes..."

One of the most famous Polish emigres in the arts, Basia (n�e Barbara Trzetrzelewska) is a jazz/pop vocalist and songwriter with a devoted international audience. She got her start in the early 1980s with a popular U.K.-based light-jazz outfit called Matt Bianco, but by 1987 had gone solo, releasing her first album, TIME AND TIDE, to universal acclaim. The zeitgeist was right for sophisticated, Latin-flavored pop, and critics and audiences loved Basia's supple, four-octave voice and striking good looks. She continued to release albums into the 1990s, but retired from the music business in 1998.

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