On her album Eugenie, the smooth, invigorating jazz vocals of Eugenie Jones are gift-wrapped with inviting arrangements and the sublime playing of a variety of musicians. Eugenie Jones has a specialty — mining the subtle emotion in a song and enfolding it with her own lived experience so that every note is honest and true. On track after track, she explores and makes total sense of the emotional logic of the material.

Eugenie Jones uses every moment on the album to establish her gift of creating and sustaining a variety of atmospheres. After establishing an effectively dramatic mood (“Sinnerman”), she guides us toward a lighter, more forgiving space (with “It’s Okay”). This is merely one example of the many ways that she has delivered a phenomenal listening experience. Along the way, she shares the spotlight with some seriously talented musicians (especially trumpeter Gil Defay on “Work Song”).

Producer Lonnie Plaxico, and all the album’s arrangers, must be mentioned for their considerable contributions to this collection of songs that succeeds by placing the emphasis on the sensational Eugenie Jones.