Dayna Kurtz, Beautiful Yesterday

By Judith Edelman

If Dayna Kurtz were a 20th-century movie star, she’d be Marlene Dietrich. If she were a French chanteuse, she’d be Edith Piaf. These are just two of the spirits inhabiting the sonic space on Beautiful Yesterday, Kurtz’ haunting new release. You can also hear Tom Waits, Brecht and Weill, and even a bit of Muddy Waters—or is it Big Mama Thornton?—in this eclectic collection of songs. But Kurtz has an amazing ability to channel a wide range of musical zeitgeists into her own sound, thanks largely to her low, rich, and flexible voice, which is light and melancholy one moment, passionate and full of irony or wrath the next. While she has chosen material from diverse sources, including Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Leonard Cohen, and Prince, Kurtz’ own songs fit naturally into this group and are among the best on an album that never sounds disjointed or untrue. The lead track, the original “Music Box,” lives up to its title, sounding eerie and antique, beautifully setting the tone for what follows.

Kurtz doesn’t make it the focus of the album, but her guitar playing is flexible enough to take her to the musical places she visits, whether she’s plucking an open pattern with an oddly cabaret feel on “I Belong to the Wind” or strumming some attitude into the bluesy “Love Where Did You Go?” Drummer and coproducer Randy Crafton, keyboardist Peter Vitalone, and bassist Dave Richards support Kurtz’ vocals and bassy guitar with their tasteful presence and crafted silences. New York City’s genre-bending string quartet Ethel; Amy Platt’s horns; and a vocal and piano cameo by Norah Jones, in a duet with Kurtz on the jazz classic “I Got It Bad,” contribute to the production’s fine, shifting balance between old and modern sounds. (Kismet,