The Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition has played a significant part in launching the careers of a remarkable array of artists, from Cyrille Aimée and Jazzmeia Horn to Ashleigh Smith and Deelee Dubé. This self-titled debut from the winner of the 2019 competition, Samara Joy McLendon, reveals another outstanding vocalist, one who appears to have listened to the Vaughan/Fitzgerald canon and absorbed elements from both into her own aesthetic orbit. In the august company of guitarist Grasso, bassist Roland and drummer Washington, McLendon's great qualities – impeccable time, timbral richness and emotional power – are heard to powerful effect on the opening ‘Stardust, one of the most revered and recorded entries in the Great American Songbook and certainly one of Hoagy Carmichael's most beautiful melodies. She brings an impressive rhythmic punch and incisive articulation to ‘If You Never Fall In Love With Me’, while ‘Only A Moment Ago’ simmers with emotional intensity. There are also loving nods to Nat King Cole (‘It Only Happens Once, first recorded by Cole's trio in 1945), Billie Holiday (‘Lover Man, ‘Let's Dream in the Moonlight’, plus an infinitely touching ‘But Beautiful’) and Carmen McRae (‘If You'd Stay The Way I Dream About You’). Consistently beguiling, this is an album that stays with you long after the last notes fade away.