Music
"Every Little Star" (2013)
Childlike innocence is at the heart of Abigail Riccards’s wonderful new recording. On this disc she brings her masterful grace with both music and children to the fore. Although Abigail has most certainly established a reputation in both New York and Chicago as one of the finest vocalists in jazz today, she has also garnered significant experience as a parent/child music teacher, particularly with Music Together and ArtStrides (a nonprofit program for special needs and financially disadvantaged children, which the sales of this recording benefit.) This recording is thematically dedicated to the children in Abigail’s life, most notably her beloved nieces and nephew and her Music Together/ArtsStrides families.
"Soft Rains Fall" (2011)
With Tony Romano on guitar, Riccards has put together a program that visits a diverse list of composers including Hoagy Carmichael, Jobim, Joni Mitchell, and Simon and Garfunkel.
Riccards settles into Romano’s enveloping arrangements so well that you might think most of these songs were actually written with voice and guitar in mind. Highlights are many, but it’s on the Hoagy Carmichael selections that Riccards’ voice really shines. On “The Nearness of You,” “I Get Along Without You Very Well,” and (especially!) “Stardust” her voice achieves a tenderness and intimacy that can indeed cause the rest of the world to drop way, if only for a few moments.
Mark Saleski, Something Else
"When the Night is New" (2007)
Judging from the close-up images of raven-haired Brooklynite Abigail Riccards that grace both the front and back of her inaugural disc, her resemblance to Norah Jones is nothing short of startling. Riccards, whose voice is slightly fuller, rounder and decidedly more jazz-tinged, also shares Jones’ youthfulness and enormous potential. Like Jones, she seems wise beyond her years. Many a young singer can travel the breadth of such superbly crafted standards as “East of the Sun,” “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” and “But Beautiful.” Far rarer are those who, like Riccards, can successfully navigate their depth.
Christopher Loudon, JazzTimes