On The Street Where You Live
... one of the best new CDs out now and highly recommended.... - L.A. Jazz Scene
...Donna’s amazing voice; it’s smooth as silk and sexy as hell.
The musicianship is top notch and Weitz’s guitar work is fluid, skilled and unpretentious as the band compliments each other so very well.- Pam Baumgardner Ventura Rocks Online Magazine
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There’s no sense of ego and no insufferable “performance.” Instead, Donna Deussen and Paul Weitz’s trio manage a remarkably pure and superbly fresh record. This is “kitchen table jazz” at its finest."
- Jordan Richardson - Something Else Music Review
... Guitarist Paul Weitz has complete control of his guitar and as fine as the other musicians are, he never gets overshadowed ... this group is perfect for Deussen's voice and style. They are top notch! Keep an eye on this terrific group!
- Myrna Daniels, L.A, Jazz Scene Magazine (June 2014)
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…In a highly competitive field, Donna Deussen is deserving of much more attention than she has been given. Her time has come...Deussen's scat singing is full-throttle. She scats as naturally as she sings…The after-hours thrill of Donald Fagen's terminally hip "Do Wrong Shoes" is accentuated by bassist Matt VanBenschoten's walking tempo seasoned with guitarist Paul Weitz's too-cool stylings…
- C. Michael Bailey - allaboutjazz.com (Oct 8, 2014)
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THANK GOD A JAZZ SINGER FINALLY COVERED CALIFORNIA DREAMIN AND DID IT A RIGHTEOUS!!! I've been waiting for that for four decades! Donna Deussen knocks it screaming out of the ballpark. John Philips, were he still with us, would be exultant. Ah, but let's not stop at Johnny 'cause the very next cut is Steely Dan's Do Right Shoes, and Don Fagen's gonna go into rapture when he hears this version. As I've been noting for some time now, it's well past the moment the successors to The Great American Songbook were covered, and that sentiment's slowly spreading to the jazz world, Deussen making excellent contributions (her take on Joni's Both Sides Now isn't radicalized but it's very very sweet, even to the point of multi-tracking a duet with herself, and I love it when singers do that).
Deussen's version of On the Street Where You Live is OUTSTANDING (geez, I better knock off the capitalizations or the whole review is going to be nothing but!), taking the chestnut sprinting down to the end of the pier and jumping off to dance the Lindy Hop with amped-up mermaids, swingin' and then some. You have not, I guaranfuckingtee, heard the hoary ol' chestnut done like this before. Deussen is an extremely confident singer; I don't think it's possible for her to make even the most minor mistake or for a microsecond quaver in her choices. You can tell she knows exactly what the next 10 moves are going to be while simultaneously permanently in the pocket, forever in the moment, and then projecting forward to where everything should lead.
It's a CRIME that this is only Deussen's second slab. She should have 10 out by now, be soundtracked in movies, appear on TV, and find herself featured in Playboy Jazz Fests. Take my word for it, y'all, this is one of the country's most talented singers, one of the best I've EVER heard. On the Street is a definite in the year's 30 Best."
Mark S. Tucker - F.A.M.E. (Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange) (Apr 6, 2015)
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