Country: USA
Genre: Jazz, pop/world music
EP: Light World
Format: Digital
Label: Independent
Release date: 2025
I’ve listened to Roberta Baum for years, and I still feel a unique connection to her. In 1995 she was performing and recording as Serpentine (later known as Serpentine Arborvitae), but she’s been a jazz vocalist since the 80s and a performing artist in the 70s. There was always a mystical, mysterious essence about her that didn't exactly evoke a different time or a different world, yet it was undeniably there and I was completely entranced.
From her early jazz work to “Rock the Goddess” and “Darker than Black” in the 90s to her latest album “Light World”, her voice has consistently transcended her vast influences and inspirations. For that long she remained a well-kept secret, yet collaborated with esteemed jazz artists, participated in notable events, garnered critical praise, and composed for film, theater, and dance.
Baum revels in the variety woven into her music from within, transforming it into something innovative and timeless. Her work is like the experience of attending a sacred mass, with forbidden pagan sensuality and a profound connection to womanhood dating back to the legend of Lilith, the first wife of Adam who was banished from Eden for disobedience. That disobedience stemmed from a passionate yearning for freedom, individuality, and the compelling urge to create and sustain life.
Her performances on stage brought those masses to life; the raw sexual energy she and her band exuded appeared to permeate the space, animating everyone present one way or another. Expressing deeply finespun passions with language that’s rhythmic at times and elevated at others, Baum’s voice and accompanying music the joy of transcending one-dimensional limitations like a spectrum of notes or a shoehorning together of genres for its own sake.
Her performances on stage brought those masses to life; the raw sexual energy she and her band exuded appeared to permeate the space, animating everyone present one way or another. Expressing deeply finespun passions with language that’s rhythmic at times and elevated at others, Baum’s voice and accompanying music the joy of transcending one-dimensional limitations like a spectrum of notes or a shoehorning together of genres for its own sake.
“Light World” furthers Baum's exploration of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean flavored pop/world music. Reinventing herself with every release, she has a different shade to unveil and a different tale to share on each of these five tracks. Having celebrated the earth, nature, light and darkness, along with ancient pagan and wiccan goddesses, she’s now journeying through the boundless expanse of the void to share her discoveries.
With the themes made for each track, the dynamism and vitality are extensive, appearing to reach into infinity as it surrounds you with dreamlike vibrations and raw sensuality. Baum's meticulous focus on diction and tone, along with her breathing techniques to enhance vocal projection, reflect a familiar style to her previous works. Now it evokes a sensation of being guided by an angel throughout the experience, and realizing that angels are not what you expected them to be.
Whether it's a solitary incantation like “Look Up” or a complex multi-layered saga like “Kingdom of Heaven”, the variety in cultural and spiritual practices is enriched with significant depth and scope, making them sound and feel universally relevant. And it feels like a realization long forgotten but suddenly found again if you know where to seek it. –Dave Wolff
Track list:
1. Light World
2. God Makes A Way
3. Look Up
4. I Can Heal Myself
5. Kingdom Of Heaven
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