Album Review: Tamara Wellons’ Life Is

W. Jacarl Melton
dcist
December 30, 2008

http://dcist.com/2008/12/album_review_tamara_wellons_life_is.php

It’s been a while since the D.C.-area was noted for dance music. Baltimore has stolen the District’s thunder in part because of highly respected producers like Karizma. But Tamara Wellons has helped focus more attention on the local scene due to at least part of her latest release, Life Is.

Life Is isn’t a dance record per se, though two of its tracks received regular play in house deejays’ playlists in the latter part of 2007 and in early 2008. One of them, “Oh Well (BahSonik Remix)” is grounded in the upbeat Brazilian/Latin rhythms that’ve become synonymous with the song’s producer, Carlos Mena. Wellons’ vocals ride the instrumental like a proverbial wave. On full display are her well-honed jazz stylings which aid in striking a perfect balance between the two extremes that often haunt dance music: overpowering music and overwheming singing. As she tells her tale of coping with the lack of a significant other, the matching of music and voice lessen the dappening effect caused by the song’s subject matter.

Besides the more dance-oriented selections, Wellons puts emphasis on highlighting her soul-based jazz vocals. While featuring several original compositions and an interpretation of the Brazilian standard, “Corcovado,” she really shines on her cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” For the first time ever, Kurt Cobain’s rage-charged indecipherability has been made comprehensible with a sense of calm. The radical musical departure from the original is difficult to compute at first listen but after a few more spins, it starts to seem right. Again, Wellons is a jazz vocalist. That term connotes a smoothness that was completely absent in the original version of “Teen.” Yet, she’s talented enough to pull it off with startlingly positive results.

Over Life Is’s 12 tracks, Wellons demonstrates a stylist steadfastness that translates regardless of the song’s substance. Despite this, the album is never boring. Backed by capable musicians and producers, Wellons has birthed an album that deserves recognition due to her ability to take music and shape it into the creation she desires, and that’s the true mark of an artist.