The Great American Songbook offers delightful lyrics and delicious melodies that have been recorded and performed by a plethora of singers. While some jazz vocalists since the ‘90s strayed from that straight-ahead path by covering pop tunes of the day and writing their own compositions, the standards have continued to serve as the vocal’s bedrock of jazz over the past decades.

However, the repetition sometimes takes the surprise out of the depth of the songs. Often an album of standards performed by the best vocal talent can sound predictable.

Enter the extraordinary Lagos, Nigeria-born, Los Angeles-based jazz vocalist Douyé who breathes new life into the tried-and-true standards on The Golden Sèkèrè —h er fifth album named after the beaded percussion instrument unique to her homeland.

She blends her polyrhythmic African heritage with the lyricism of the Western jazz world to create an astonishing fourteen song collection of sublime beauty and percussive festivity. It stands tall as a special font of creative innovation.

“I’ve seen thousands of people on YouTube sing these jazz standards, but so much of it feels inauthentic,” Douyé says. “Like my father taught me, I needed to connect with the spirit of each of the songs to understand them directly.”

1. Cherokee
2. Speak Low
3. The Very Thought of You
4. My Funny Valentine (feat. Sean Jones)
5. I’ve Got You Under My Skin
6. Fly Me To The Moon (feat. Lionel Loueke)
7. Afro Blue
8. It Don’t Mean A Thing
9. Green Dolphin Street
10. I’m Confessin That I Love You (feat. Lionel Loueke)
11. Key Largo
12. Azure
13. Devil May Care (feat. Buster Williams)
14. I’ve Got You Under My Skin

Opening on the richly warming Cherokee (her take on Ray Nobel’s classic bebop standard) and the more stringently impassioned Speak Low (the Kurt Weill gem), they are followed seamlessly by the sultry, low crawl balladry of The Very Thought of You, a smokey rendition of Rodgers and Hart’s My Funny Valentine, a luxuriant I’ve Got You Under My Skin, and then we get a transportive Fly Me To The Moon and a soulful Afro Blue.

Along next is the upright bass and drum-led, Duke Ellington finger-snapper It Don’t Mean A Thing and some gorgeous hipsway within Green Dolphin Street and they are in turn backed by the softly sculpted ballad I’m Confessin That I Love You, the atmospheric Key Largo, the fully-charged Ellington cut Azure, the music rounding out on the upright bass-fed, spiced by African percussion of Devil May Care, and then she brings a decadent, rich Nigerian culture to her own redo of I’ve Got You Under My Skin.

Douyé made this album to celebrate her heritage in culture and sounds. The Golden Sèkèrè is also a loving tribute to Douyé’s father Landy Youduba. Even though she started her career recording R&B music, she never forgot her father insisting that she sing jazz.

In her album liner notes, she writes about her father’s blessings when he told her, “Omo mi, you should never forget that you came from a background that is rich in culture. I want to encourage you to create an album that celebrates your talent and heritage. I know that God is with you every step of the way.”

Douyé - My Funny Valentine (Official Video)

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