Another GREAT review from Germany! 🎶🙏❤️💥 This time from Musikansich.de

Thanks a lot to Wolfgang Giese from Musicansich.de! The new album, The Song Is You, is rated 17 out of 20, and so is placed in the category: Sehr empfehlenswert, that means: Highly Recommended! 
But...furthermore it receives a really nice and thorough review as well! Here is the link to the review in German: https://www.musikansich.de/review.php?id=22117  
 

Here is an English translation:

The subtitle reads: "Feat. Gilad Hekselman & Kirk Knuffke. Yes, there are 
three of them. Lilly, real name Lilly-Ann Hertzman is a singer, songwriter 
and producer. She hails from Denmark, a child of Japanese and Danish 
parents. Her influences range from jazz to the singer/songwriter genre and 
folk to pop. 

She has been releasing records regularly since 2015, in both English and 
Danish. Most recently, there was a duo album with guitarist Gilad Hekselman 
in 2017. The Israeli-born musician is also on board for The Song Is You, as 
is U.S. cornet player Kirk Knuffke. 

What is striking about the album's song selection is that, with the 
exception of two tracks ("Scarborough Fair" - a traditional and "Five Wild 
Geese" - an original composition), it consists exclusively of jazz 
standards. And that usually requires a good hand, especially since as a 
listener one may often be inclined to go with originals or other well-known 
interpretations. And so I find it very gratifying that the three don't cling 
tightly and rigidly to well-known versions of the standards in question, but 
invest their own imaginations to create individual interpretations. 

"If You Could See Me Now" starts as a pure vocal-guitar duet, with Gilad 
Hekselman adding a special accent with his acoustic guitar. This is 
extremely sensitively done, the delicate, soft and smooth voice nestling 
with the guitar to form a whole, quite dreamy and encouraging to let the 
thoughts fly. 

"Up Jumped Spring" is one of the seven entries for cornetist Kirk Knuffke, 
the other three songs are in duet format. This lightly lilting song shows 
Hekselman deftly embellishing the arrangement while also taking on a strong 
rhythmic role. And on top of that, he sensitively accommodates his solo 
work, giving the song a playful and wide-ranging expression through the 
various facets of his guitar playing. 

And so all the remaining songs are also strongly marked by the versatility 
and wide range of guitarist Hekselman. From my point of view Lilly carries 
different elements of expression, from jazz sometimes Abbey Lincoln comes to 
the fore, but also the folky variant of a Joni Mitchell should be 
considered. All songs have in common that the protagonist conveys a strong 
emotional impression through her very sensitive voice, very personally 
marked. And this comes especially to the fore in the original composition 
"Five Wild Geese". Here, the various musical influences are very aptly 
matched and merged. 

Kirk Knuffke always brings the strongest jazz part into the songs with his 
contributions, influenced by modern oriented trumpet/cornet players. For 
example, he is instrumental in "modernizing" Duke Ellington's very familiar 
standard, "Prelude To A Kiss." "Scarborough Fair," the traditional English 
tune, has become one of the most unusual songs on the album. The origin of 
the song in the Middle Ages, including the atmosphere of that time, is 
transferred to the present time with what we know from the interpretation of 
Simon & Garfunkel, enriched with jazz, to a very individual sound.

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