The thing with music fans is that our favorite records often trigger specific memories, providing a biographical soundtrack for our lives. It turns out this connectivity also extends to the musicians themselves. Jenna McSwain’s Wax and Wane: Songs without Seasons uses mostly original songs to run the gamut of her jazz history from her childhood singing spirituals in rural South Carolina to earing a Master of Music degree—which she puts to good use on Wax and Wane—from the University of Northern Colorado. McSwain and her band jump from traditional swing to bossa nova to torch ballads to sambas with ease, seemingly not giving a second thought to the wide palette used to color the band leader’s polished but soulful voice and songs. The result is a record full of artful solos along with well-orchestrated classical and big band flourishes.

McSwain shows her pedigree through an impressive showing on both voice and piano, with the latter showing shades of both Thelonius Monk and Oscar Peterson. Her talents are most evident on the ballad “Seasons Change,” a moving solo vocal/piano piece wherein McSwain sings of the changes over the course of a year over her flowing piano. While the song feels distinctly autobiographical, McSwain most relishes her history on the album-closing “I’ve Got Peace Like a River.” The song combines traditional spiritual and gospel melodies with jazz arrangements and instrumentation, resulting in a celebration of both genres and some of the strongest performances on the record. The song, as well as the rest of Wax and Wane, plays like McSwain’s own personal mix tape from which she reminisces her musical memories.