Eugenie Jones is defining the future of modern jazz, from her own point of view and bringing us all along for a ride as she releases the brilliant new single "Starlight Starbright" off her 2025 album "EUGENIE." The song is a tender, slow-burning ballad that softly invites you to believe in love again, even after heartbreak or amid skies of doubt.
"Starlight Starbright" features Jones in a rare state not just soulfully intimate, but melodically tranquil and emotionally wide open. This is a love letter to hope. With her characteristic warmth and musical grace, Jones, already a two-time Grammy Award winner for spoken word, has produced something that seems timeless even as it proves timely. "It's about the miracle of second chances," she reveals. You can certainly hear that miracle on every note.
Supported by a world-class ensemble, the orchestration is lush at one moment and restrained the next. Mamiko Watanabe's piano work, meanwhile, veins everything with a shimmering undercurrent that suggests moonlight on water. Yoojin Park's violin and Jessica Wang's cello breeze through the song like a gentle summer evening wind, giving it depth and cinematic weight. A persistent, marching rhythmic heartbeat is forged by Lonnie Plaxico on bass and Russell Carter's drums without ever smothering the melody. Her voice feels the words, drawing on a life of experience with every breath. There is an openness in her delivery that makes the song's message of love, always available despite those who would seek to control it or police its expression, land just a bit more softly.
"Starlight Starbright" is one of the highlights on "EUGENIE," Jones' most personal and self-defining project to date. Jazz chops and great singing are also all over the album, but it's this track that pulls you in. It is a signifier that, beneath the shiny artistry, a woman tells her story of love, wrapped in grace and resilience, and having faith. For longtime fans and new listeners alike, "Starlight Starbright" is a gentle nudge that jazz can be honest, hopeful, and healing. Under Jones's inspired direction, it's no longer a song so much as a diamond-clear night sky promise that love, no matter how lost, is never too far gone.
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Reviewed by LyricalOdyssey Music
on
August 01, 2025
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