On the eighth track of her third record, ex-blues singer Liz McComb joins in the company of stomping piano chords and squealing electric organs to proclaim she’s “happy, happy working for the Lord.” It’s hard, toilsome work, she says, and that much you can hear: McComb is a tireless performer, ever pounding away onstage and in studios, mashing the eclectic tastes of her jazz-playing friends into the narrow confines of what gospel purists will let you do to their songs.

Born in Ohio, received in Paris, her mechanical mix of obligatory gospel parts and reconstructed Europeanized jazz more or less approximates The Spirit of New Orleans, hence the title. Her French friends have enjoyed this record since 2001, but with its American release, we living amongst The Spirit can now enjoy it, too. Except that “enjoy” is a tricky word. This up-and-down collection of well-rehearsed standards—such as her excellent “Closer Walk with Thee”—isn’t something you dance or sing along with, so much as it’s something to hunker down with. “The Big Mess” is by far the rowdiest, on which horns blare like fire engines speeding towards a Pentecostal blaze, drummers and pianists thumping their instruments while McComb all but performs an exorcism on her messy room. On most every other song, she showcases her Crescent City band’s rigid sense of self-control. As a bandleader, McComb sounds like she charges for frills, docks pay for showy solos, and writes bonus checks for in-the-pocket ostinatos. For better or worse—mostly better—The Spirit of New Orleans is her parade, and it goes where she leads it: right down the narrow aisles.