(excerpted from a two-disc review with Doug Wamble's
Blue State on Marsalis Music)
 This
fresh, unpolished quartet offers an unpretentious
date led by an earthy acoustic guitarist — Pat
Bergeson, pingy and polite — and plays good
originals mixed with a few jazz or pop standards.
But it's the arresting, quirky
singer — Annie
Sellick's catchy, smart-as-a-fox alto — that
steals the show.
On Low Standards, Bergeson and vibist
Steve Shapiro lead their low-key band through Latinized
classics (Duke Ellington with Afro-mallets) and
lush, leisurely originals ("End Of The Road," "Please
Be Early") with lucid grace if little excitement.
When they back Sellick on
shorter alternating tracks, they ease into overdrive
for her insinuating smears and hints of Diana Krall ("You Don't Know What Love Is") and
savvy Carmen McRae snap ("Everything
Happens To Me").
Sellick, a rave in Nashville, shows country flair
only on a Jackson Browne ballad where Bergeson
keens wistful harmonica fills over tasteful guitar.
Tenor saxophonis Scott Kreitzer amiably blows half
the set.
— Fred Bouchard
© DownBeat, October 2005
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