As a featured soloist and ensemble singer, Fred Farell has made a name for himself as a preeminent pro jazz voice. Across five decades and at venues as esteemed and diverse as Avery Fisher Hall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Museum of Modern Art, Farell has demonstrated inspired interpretive abilities to go with his heartfelt lyricism and sweet pipes. Distant Song, his debut for Whaling City Sound, a home for much quality jazz, is a profound experience, thanks partly due to his composers and loyal accompanists saxophonist Dave Liebman and piano/keys player Richie Beirach, both of whom have collaborated on the original music for this record. Farell’s own wordsmithing is sublime, requiring deftness, patience and passion on the microphone. His compositions unfold gently, religiously. Infused with sacred messaging, Distant Song is an emotional project—part, jazz, part spiritual, part loving experiment—produced with happiness and love by a veteran talent clearly confident and at peace with himself and his abilities.