Utrechts Nieuwsblad, January 2004 (Holland)

Almost 10 years ago (1995, DJ) Denise Jannah was signed by the Blue Note label. Now she gets little to no attention from the record bosses. They apparently seem to be more interested in younger, more hip and better marketable talent: Trijntje Oosterhuis (Dutch vocalist) for instance, who recently made her debut on Blue Note with the album “Strange Fruit”. Jannah, at the same time, almost unnoticed and independently released her “Gedicht Gezongen” (literally translated: Poetry Sung). A comparison between these two vocalist gives Denise the absolute advantage. Trijntje is an all-round vocalist who does a pretty good job at singing jazz. Denise, on the other hand, simply is Jazz and with the advancing of the years seems to be uncapable of singing even one note that is not rich in sound, has a timing that swings and an interpretation one can really feel. “Gedicht Gezongen” is more or less a one woman’s project: Jannah composed music for all 22 poems and produced the album herself. She is being accompanied by intimate combo’s with guitarist Leonardo Amuedo as her major supporting sideman. The poetry of Hans Andreus, M. Vasalis, Neeltje Maria Min and others, at first set to music for the yearly International Literature Festival “Winternachten (Winter Nights) is brought across excellently by an immaculate enunciation. The lyrics even seem to gain more meaning thanks to this undoubted and absolute higher level of vocal art.

-Jeroen de Valk,

jazz critic and -author