Where has Josie Falbo been all my life? . . . is a question you might ask yourself within the first 15 minutes of hearing this album. 

It would be disingenuous for me to direct that question to myself: living in Chicago, I’ve known about Josie for years. If you ask the city’s musicians, it seems that everyone has known about Josie—not only through the (literally) hundreds of commercial jingles on which she sang during the city’s advertising heyday, but also owing to her backup vocals behind dozens of popular music stars, from 

Michael Bolton to Nancy Wilson. And, more and more in this century, folks around Chicago know Josie from having heard her sit in with jazz artists for a tune or two—where the often gigantic voice emanating from this short woman comes as a gleeful surprise.

That voice can indeed reach the rafters. But “gigantic” does triple duty here. It also covers Josie’s three-octave-plus range; and it speaks to her deeply layered timbre and phrasing, in addition to the decibels she can achieve. Her vocal instrument carries us from the angelic strains of “Flor de Lis” to the sultry low notes of “Chelsea Bridge.” It’s a voice that expands to embrace the brassy exuberance that Carey Deadman (Josie’s producer and arranger) has poured into the Cole Porter classic that kicks off this album. Yet it can also sustain the focused hush with which Josie propels “Lazy Afternoon,” swaddled in strings and marked by Larry Kohut’s brief and compelling bass solo. 

It’s a voice that retains its mother-of-pearl luster at every tempo and in any setting, and it carries an instinctive musicianship that, according to her mother, Josie first exhibited at 19 months old, when she began singing what she heard on the radio—in both English and Italian.

You might also ask why I suggest it would take all of 15 minutes to appreciate that voice. It has nothing to do with Josie herself: she makes the case in a few seconds. But unlike her previous album (You Must Believe in Spring)—on which she realized a longtime dream of recording with a full symphonic orchestra—Kickin’ It features a rainbow of orchestrations and ensembles, covering a canyon-wide range of material. So, those first 15 minutes give you a pretty good glimpse of the stylistic swath. And hearing the ease with which Josie inhabits these settings tells you even more about the unassuming authority she brings to them all.

Deadman handled most of the arranging, and it’s a treat to realize that the same pen produced the big-band swing of the opening track, the intimidating ocean of strings on “Autumn Nocturne,” and (a bit later) the burnished horns that frame “Lazy Afternoon.” Deadman also produced and arranged Josie’s previous album, and his string writing remains grandiloquent. 

The wild card here is dealt by Marshall Vente who, says Josie, “pushed me into a whole world of bossa nova artists I wasn’t aware of.” A veteran Chicago bandleader, composer, educator—who has led the Brazilian jazz group Tropicale, and hosts the long-running program Jazz Tropicale on WDCB radio—Vente charted three of the four tunes written by Brazilian composers. They jolt the program with percolating percussion and willowy woodwind ensembles. And Josie channels the uniquely Brazilian blend of passion and nonchalance, a reflection on her continuingly evolving artistry. (Don’t miss her spot-on imitation of the Brazilian cuica in the last 20 seconds of “Brigas Nunca Mais.”) 

Josie can navigate these crosscurrents in part because of her eclectic, five-decade career. She earned a voice scholarship to Mundelein College, and had occasional lessons in classical singing when she was younger. Her ex-husband, a trumpet player, steered her to bop icons Clifford Brown and Lee Morgan; she also discovered, on her own, the Chicago-based MJT+3, which introduced pianist Harold Mabern to listeners. She was leading her own “little rock band” in the 70s; but “I gravitated more toward r-and-b, and mostly to jazz,” she recalls, before making her first demo tape and joining the stable of commercial singers at Nuance Productions in Chicago.

“But I never had the ambition to make an album,” she admits. It took incessant noodging from Nuance owner Dick Boyell—who kept sending her music he thought she should record—before she finally got into the studio for her debut album, Taylor Street (1980). “I was perfectly happy just doing commercials. But after that first album, I started thinking of the next one.” The world of listeners beyond commercial consumerism thanks her.

On this disc, Josie works with an array of Chicago’s finest, from the pitch-perfect Crystall String Section to a raft of top-flight jazzmen. The pianists alone make up a unique assortment of widely admired accompanists. The saxophone soloists, each chosen to enhance specific arrangements, shine throughout. The world-renowned guitarist Fareed Haque lends his unmistakable sound to two of the Brazilian tracks, and Steve Eisen’s exquisite flute work further brightens “Brigas Nunca Mas” (“No More Fights”). 

The open secret to assembling a sonic army of this caliber? Just savor “Social Call,” where Josie winningly sings the vocalese lyrics. Hear the gentle shiver she brings to “Chelsea Bridge.” Dive into her delightful, horn-worthy scat solos at both ends of this album. Many singers improvise without words; most should not. But Josie is the exception that tests the rule. She doesn’t twist herself into knots by trying to imitate an instrumentalist’s pyrotechnics; instead, she crafts gorgeous, lyrical new lines of her own.

The secret is that great jazz artists love to work with a singer whose musicianship equals their own. Game respects game.

Those who’ve heard Josie in Chicago clubs, or who’ve been wooed by her two previous albums—well you know what to expect. But for those who’ve never heard her before, I envy you. You’ve waited your whole life to discover one of your favorite “new” singers, and that experience—like falling in love for the first time—really can’t be beat.  

– NEIL TESSER