All Wright

I've seen comparisons of Lizz Wright to Norah Jones, I guess because some people see the same star potential. But I've heard Norah Jones and Lizz Wright and Lizz Wright is no Norah Jones. Wright's is a more rangy, powerful voice and heavier at the deep end in the Nina Simone or Cassandra Wilson vein, albeit all her own. I have no problem seeing her as the featured soloist in a boffo gospel choir.

I'm unable to decide whether to call her new CD "Dreaming Wide Awake" a blues or a jazz or a soul disk and it doesn't matter because it's a good one however you want to classify it. Cool jazzed covers of Neil Young's "Old Man" and of "Get Together." The accompaniment is sparse, so Wright's voice had to carry the proceedings, which she does no problem.