Dominique Fils-Aimé’s voice – a defined, sinewy muscle – guides her across a constellation of genres and eras in a robust trilogy dedicated to the history of Black music.

A heavyhearted, bluesy guitar opens “Like Mama Said,” the lead track from Dominique Fils-Aimé’s EP “The Red,” but not even the song’s aching chords can match the emotion that the Canadian singer conveys with her voice. She fills every nook and cranny of the melody, and her tone is so tender and disarming that it’s won her comparisons to such bygone greats as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Still, the 2019 Polaris-nominated artist doesn’t imitate the past—she uses its inspirations to compose contemporary soul that tackles oppression and offers hope for the present day.

Her songs are haunting, often feeling as though they came from a place of both struggle and strength, and leave you hypnotized and singing softly to yourself.

Taking those influences into the future produces a contemporary groove that is along the lines of similarly powerful and inspired composers

These societal issues that Dominique Fils-Aimé skillfully puts on the table with each song and which give this project a rare resonance and depth.

Words is an infectious, original work, one that solidifies Dominique Fils-Aimé as a grounding force in contemporary jazz…