“...a breakthrough recording, serving up a dazzling melange of the seductive, sophisticated vocals that have long been her hallmark.
The CD includes two standards – Cole Porter’s “Dream Dancing” and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “It Might as Well Be Spring” — and they quickly establish Stravelli as an artist who offers fresh insights into standards that you’d think by now would defy reinterpretation. But the album’s ten other songs are the main attraction. Stravelli had a hand in writing, or contributing to all of them, along with O’Leary and lyricist Jason Robinson – and it is here that her musical gifts truly shine.
In sum, “Dream Ago” is one of the finer jazz albums you’ll hear this year...As Jonathan Schwartz, the dean of Great American Songbook broadcasters puts it: ‘She’s the real deal.’”
— JOSH GETLiN, HUFFiNGTON POST
“Truly special. Gabrielle Stravelli is an absolute arresting talent, whether she’s opening a disc with Cole Porter’s ‘Dream Dancing’ or singing Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘It Might as Well Be Spring’ later or singing her own songs (some of which are extraordinary). She has all the presence of a Broadway belter or an intimate cabaret sparkler and poet but she also swings the house down. And when she does Andrews Sister voice-over dubs, she is completely winning.”
— JEFF SiMON, BUFFALO NEWS
“...The first thing you will notice about Gabrielle Stravelli is that voice: Unforced, earthy, flexible, playful and unpretentious, her jazzy/cool spectrum of colors offers twirls of tremolos and trills that never sound like tricks (and no belting — hallelujah!).
The second thing I noticed on her great new well-produced release, Dream Ago, were Pat O’Leary’s arrangements...The trifecta is completed here by terrific songs, and not necessarily from well-known composers...
Best of all, her seemingly boundless range and flavors give us one of the most refreshing covers of “It Might As Well Be Spring” I’ve ever heard: ornamental without being ostentatious, I wonder why more singers can’t reinvent the American songbook while keeping their distinction. While I long for lyrics with more bite on the original songs (8 out of 12 tracks), it’s also a brave and adventurous CD: The title cut is an atmospheric, reflective tune without any hooks, but let it wash over you and even the great Ellington may come to mind.”