Most of us have been tempted to fall for the wrong person at one time or another. Jazz singer-songwriter Gina Kronstadt journals an alluring temptation on “The Threat of Love,” the first single from her third album, “October Comes Too Soon,” which dropped last Friday on FallOff Records.
Kronstadt wrote and produced the storybook musing on love, intimate relationships and astute observations. The single earned most added status on the Billboard chart in its debut week at radio. Debuting the same week was the sensual black and white video for “The Threat of Love” that was lensed on the streets of Los Angeles.
Kronstadt writes music as therapy – mental and spiritual - and she composed the eight songs that comprise “October Comes Too Soon” during a challenging eight-month period while recovering from multiple shoulder surgeries. She cleverly uses “real” lyrics and her soothing-caress-of-a-voice to capture and convey honest thoughts and emotions, feelings of vulnerability and heartache, and ruminations on love, bliss and politics. When it was time to lay the tracks, Kronstadt called upon noted musicians to vividly illumine her tales: keyboardists John Beasley and Nicholas Semrad, bassist Benjamin Shepherd, drummer Joel Taylor, trumpeter Michael Stever and saxophonist/woodwind player Bob Sheppard. A first-call violin player who has performed on an extraordinary library of crème de la crème recording projects and concert stages, Hollywood box office hits and landmark television series, Kronstadt helmed the 12-piece string section that draped the tracks with lush backdrops, adding depth, drama and elegance.
While the first single garners attention from smooth/contemporary jazz radio programmers, cuts from “October Comes Too Soon” have also been proliferating playlists at a second radio format: straight-ahead jazz radio. In fact, Kronstadt’s disc is already making its way up the Jazz Week chart.