Here’s a vocalist with a winning heart. Kalya Ramu mixes girl next door charm with a sense of whoope cushion fun on this swinging set with Ewen Farncombe/p, Jacob Gorzhaltsan/ts-cl, Connor Walsh/b Ian Wright/dr and a collection of cameo guests.
Her voice is warm, clear and with a hint of Norah Jones, as she gets cozy with Gorzhaltsan’s clarinet on her own “Little One” and is bubbly like champagne with his tenor on “Four or Five Times.” She knows how to carry a torch, as on “She Drinks Alone” with Farncombe and does a frivolous two stepper with Andrew McAnsh’s plunging neckline of a trumpet for a vaudevillian “Am I Blue.” A duet with Nathan Ford makes “Tea For Two” a snuggler by the fire, and she slinks and stomps on “It’s A Good Day,” getting languid with the licorice stick for “You Go To My Head. She swings like a kid’s jungle gym.