Oranges and Sunshine, Elly Hoyt review by Barry O’Sullivan

elly hoyt

Album:  Oranges and Sunshine
Artist:    Elly Hoyt
Release Date: March 2015
Label:    Independent

Buy Album

The much awaited second release from jazz vocalist Elly Hoyt confirms that she’s an exceptional artist on the path to great success. In late 2010 Elly launched her self-titled debut album featuring sensational original works and sophisticated arrangements of standard jazz tunes which went on to win an Australian Jazz Bell Award in 2011 for Best Australian Jazz Vocal Album. Shortly after, Elly was accepted into The Jazz

Institute’s Stanford Workshop in the USA where she studied songwriting, as well as vocal

performance in Stanford California and in New York, leading to her compositional contributions to this album – Our Little Boy, Sink or Swim, On the Other Side and the title track Oranges and Sunshine.

Elly’s vocals have never sounded so very perfect as when she’s zooming away on breezy

renditions of Nature Boy and My Baby Just Cares For Me then soaring to vocal heights with her finesse and natural ability on It’ll Rise Again, written by Peter Sculthorpe specifically for voice and piano.

Elly’s band features excellent arrangements by Scott Griffiths with some magical improvisations, while Darryn Farrugia’s finely tuned and sympathetic drumming along with Jonathan Zion’s exceptional bass work contribute to making this album a first class effort and one to be really proud of.

Elly Hoyt – Voice and composition
Scott Griffiths – Piano and arrangements
Darryn Farrugia – Drums
Jonathan Zion – Bass
William Barton – Didgeridoo
Sarah Curro – Violin
Anita Quale – Cello

REVIEW OVERVIEW
Stars
SHARE
Barry OSullivan is the Producer/Presenter of a national music program A Jazz Hour now approaching its fourteenth year on the national Community Radio Network making it one the longest running jazz music programs on the FM Airwaves.Barry also produces and presents a variety of jazz programs for Sydney digital radio station FINE MUSIC Digital and reviews jazz music recordings for the international webpage, All About Jazz, and Fine Music Magazine.Barry strongly supports Australian jazz and contemporary improvised music from his home base in The Blue Mountains, NSW.

1 COMMENT

  1. Thanks very much Barry, I think it’s a terrific album and not many people have heard it yet – the good review is much appreciated!
    It really was a labour of love, we basically recorded the whole thing in one studio, ditched it, then started from scratch at the ABC. Then they were jack hammering the basement at the ABC 🙂
    Then Peter Sculthorpe died the day we were recording “It’ll Rise Again”.
    Elly, Johnny and Danny were a real pleasure to work with.
    Thanks again.
    Scott

LEAVE A REPLY