Sweet Sixteen Grace at, 16, you're what mystics brand an old soul. I didn t think it was feasible for a teenager to play with such maturity and authority. When I received Gracefullee last month and saw you on the cover with your mentor alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, I was a bit skeptical. Who in their right mind would give a recording deal to a teenager I mused? Standing next to Konitz you looked so shy and out of place. I figured Konitz carried you through the session, and your sidemen guitarist Russell Malone, bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Mat Wilson would handled you, pardon the pun, with kid gloves. Grace, I was dead wrong. On this nearly flawless offering you re in absolute control from start to finish. I should have known you re unarguably special because the great saxophonist Phil Woods raved about you. Plus, this year alone you received some impressive accolades: Best Jazz Act in Boston, ASCAP Foundation 2008 Young Jazz Composer Award, and 2008 Downbeat Magazine Student Music Awards just to list three. On the duets with Konitz I couldn t tell who was who because you both have identical melodic temperaments. You played the ballads You Don t Know What Love Is and There Is Not Greater Love with a puppy love sort of innocence and naivete. The duet with Malone on Just Friends and with Konitz on Alone Together are the most striking selections. You kidded around on Buzzing Around, having Konitz chase you through the chord changes. I bet he had to take breather afterward. On Call of The Spirits and NY At Noon, nifty free jazz based compositions you let loose your aggressive size. Gracefullee is your sophomore album, but it should be taken as your official coming out party. Posted by Charles L. Latimer --idigjazz blogspot

Grace Kelly and Lee Konitz Gracefullee (CD Baby) Contemplate for a moment where you were at 16 years of age and compare your confused and misguided adolescence to the trajectory 16-year old Grace Kelly has followed. No, not the dead movie star -- this Grace Kelly is rising reed player whose fourth album, Gracefullee, has just been released on the CDBaby label. Kelly has been garnering international acclaim since she was 13 as a rising alto saxophonist. She effortlessly delivers a wise-beyond-her-years technique that amazes her audiences. Now her latest bold move: She audaciously partners with sax legend (and mentor) Lee Konitz on Gracefullee. Konitz's name may not trigger the household recognition that other jazz icons command, but it should. His groundbreaking work reaches back to the 1940s, when he was a contemporary of fellow alto-God, Charlie Parker. But unlike most of the other reed-payers of the day, Konitz's airy style never got bogged down in the be-bop clichés that dominated pre-Ornette Coleman jazz. To this day Konitz has stayed true to his unique style, and here it blends beautifully with Kelly's rich sound as they glide through 10 cuts (both standards and improvised sessions) in a tight quintet setting. Every few years we get reminders that perhaps jazz isn't dead. This disc is the latest. JEFF HINKLE --Las Vegas City Life

GRACE KELLY-LEE KONITZ/Gracefullee: She has to be the Rachel Barton of jazz sax if she s 16 and they re calling her the next Bird. With a track record that reads with the child prodigy intensity of a Rachel Barton, Kelly fits the stereotype of the Asian overachiever by blowing up a storm with her mentor as well as leaving a resume in her wake most pros twice her age would be envious of. But it doesn t end there. Her crew on this date is Russ Malone, Rufus Reid and Matt Wilson, and she s not letting them coast or humor her. The set card pulls from all quadrants and everyone can be proud of this day s work. A tasty find and one of the times you genuinely want to be able to say you were the first on your block. Hot stuff throughout. 15 (Pazz) --Midwest Record