Eric St. Godard’s Jazz Instrumental ‘Lovely Rose’ Scintillates with Swanky Serendipity –

Jazz debonair, Eric St. Godard, exhibited seduction’s capacity to become once again synonymous with style and sophistication through ‘Lovely Rose’. As the opening instrumental score from his debut album, New Beginnings, it doesn’t so much ease you in; the opening salvo scintillates you into the presence of the artist and composer who has earned his stripes as a jazz savant by giving it a truly freeform sense of limitless potential, daring to rile traditionalists, and appealing instead to those who have always wanted an accessible gateway into jazz.

Leave your hat, coat and preconceptions at the door, because Beautiful Rose, in all of its swanky ability to make every new progression feel like a surge of serendipity, pulls you down a rabbit hole of passion instead of dragging you into a pit of pretension. With the way the curveballs hit in the most affectingly satisfying ways, it is almost as though Godard has a psychic intuition into when you want the visceral force of the sax and the smokier cinematic opulence that delivers and demands tenderness.

There is a louche elegance in the arrangement that recalls the sophistication of Chet Baker and the easy magnetism of Duke Ellington’s more decadent moments, while the openness in the phrasing gives the composition a modern accessibility. Every turn of the melody carries a flirtation with spontaneity, and the whole score glides with the kind of suave confidence that turns curiosity into full immersion.

Lovely Rose is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast