Rachael Calladine, The Game Review

Playing The Game to Win: Rachael Calladine’s Soulful Jazz

By Sylvannia Garutch

Rachael Calladine’s album, The Game, released on March 14, 2025, under 33Jazz Records, finds the United Kingdom vocalist returning to her straight-ahead jazz roots after a decade-long hiatus. The album features a blend of original compositions and jazz standards, each selection revealing Calladine’s versatility as a vocalist.​

The album comprises ten tracks, including four original songs co-written by Calladine and guitarist Pat McCarthy. The title track, “The Game,” is a Latin flavored tune with a memorable melody sung with Calladine’s warm, relaxed vocals. “Northern Lights,” another original composition, has a folksy feel, with captivating lyrics. The arrangements of the standards are tasteful and elegant, focusing on subtlety and restraint. For instance, the quartet’s styling of “What A Difference A Day Makes” is interesting and swinging. While the restrained pacing of Horace Silver’s “Peace” creates an intimate moment that shows the quartet’s sensitivity and listening skills.

The accompanying musicians of Pat McCarthy on guitar, Andy Tytherleigh on bass, and Si Potts on drums provide a solid foundation for Calladine’s vocal explorations. McCarthy’s jazz guitar work is a feature of the album, complementing Calladine’s delivery and adding multiple textures and feels. Tytherleigh and Potts make a versatile combination, building a robust rhythmic platform for each selection. The ensemble’s synergy is evident, resulting in an album that has an enjoyable flow of feels, tempos, and styles.

The production quality of The Game is clear and balanced sound. Each instrument sits in the mix without overshadowing Calladine’s vocals, ensuring that the nuances of her performances are captured and conveyed effectively to the listener. The stripped-back ensemble of guitar, bass, and drums gives the music a cohesiveness and let’s the subtle interplay between the musicians be heard and appreciated.

Calladine’s singing style reflects her understanding of jazz traditions, likely honed from her extensive performance history at renowned venues such as Ronnie Scott’s and the 606 Club. Her diction is precise, ensuring that each lyric is delivered with clarity and intention. Her soulful phrasing adds unexpected twists and emotional energy to the songs, making them her own. In “The Game,” Calladine exhibits horn like delivery in her scatting. Her approach to the song “The Air That I Breath” a nice out of the genre melody, done with her wonderful vocal style.

The Game is an album that shows vocalist Rachael Calladine has a vocal tone that is noteworthy and with be of high interest to fans of contemporary vocal jazz.