[Cover photo credit to Jose Crespo]

With a career spanning nearly two decades, two-time Juno Award winner, Jazz vocalist Diana Panton has released her 11th album, soft winds and roses.

A departure from her more recent albums, soft winds and roses features modern classics composed from the 1960s onward, including songs by Lennon and McCartney, Burt Bacharach, Gordon Lightfoot, Don McLean, Ron Sexsmith, Leonard Cohen, Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell, and more.

The album’s arc “follows a relationship, beginning shyly with hard-to-declare feelings, continuing through a deeply emotional connection, and finally separating, with lingering traces of love.”

Diana Panton explains her choice of songs:

Through the years, I have recorded several compilations for the Asian market, and I was often asked to include a bonus track that was a bit more contemporary and well-known in that market than some of my more obscure song choices. Fast forward to the present: I decided to assemble a selection of modern standards composed from the 1960s onward. It was a fun challenge to bring our trio’s distinctive sound to these modern classics, mixing well-known songs liker Elton John’s ‘This is Your Song’ alongside some new jazz standards, such as Fred Hersch’s ‘A Wish (Valentine).’

On soft winds and roses, Panton’s vocals are backed by two longtime musical colleagues, both former members of George Shearing’s ensemble, who have made significant contributions to her previous albums: pianist/vibraphonist/bassist/arrange Don Thompson (Officer of the Order of Canada) guitarist Reg Schwager (Member of the Order of Canada).