Abra Moore: On The Way

Four-leaf clover blossoms

It’s been far too long since a singer/songwriter explored the connections between jazz and the earth. And while Abra Moore’s On The Way is, on one level, a pleasingly competent collection of mature observations about relationships, this description fails to do justice to the soul at its loamy core—the source of the faerie/banshee wails and moans that unexpectedly rise out of her like steam from a geyser. On tracks like “Take Care Of Me,” “Sugarite” and “You,” Moore sheds the adult-pop structures that occasionally constrain her, coming off like a younger Joni Mitchell or Rickie Lee Jones. The effect is mesmerizing, leaving listeners wondering what just happened and hoping it will again. On the title track, Moore’s bending vocal merges so completely with an accompanying saxophone that, for a second, she seems to completely disappear inside the music before reemerging moments later, covered in honey and dirt.