Jenifer Jackson

The third album from New York City-based singer-songwriter Jenifer Jackson is almost too much of a good thing. Jackson has one of those wispy, Astrud Gilberto voices, the kind you don’t have to worry will start swerving melismatically all over the road like a drunken Christina Aguilera. Jackson’s voice floats onto a note, alights and takes off for the next; that’s the way it should be, unless your name is Mahalia or Aretha. Her songs run the gamut from the simple folk-like charm of “Since You’ve Been Away” to a curious, seven-minute epic that sits in the middle of the album. “Got to Have You” is a paean to Philly-style soul, and though she doesn’t have the mighty machine of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff behind her, she does have former Nashville player Pat Sansome and cohorts. A fine outing.