Lizz Wright manages an admirable feat on her second Verve album, Dreaming Wide Awake. She capitalizes on the cross-genre sweet spot of her first release with nods to Norah and Cassandra, but is able to firmly stake out her own territory. With less of a mainstream jazz claim than her previous release, Salt, Dreaming Wide Awake presents a mature singer whose ability to interpret whatever songs she chooses seems well beyond her years.

Wright opens with a ballad version of the classic pop song “A Taste of Honey.” Herb Alpert’s version of the song, was a hit in the 1960’s. Recently it has become popular as a singer’s ballad; Jackie Allen recorded a similarly smoldering version on her Love Is Blue CD. Wright’s new band is highly complementary to her vocal work right out of the gate. On Salt she worked with such modern jazz studio veterans as Brian Blade, Danilo Perez, and Sam Yehel. Wright relies heavily on her solid backing quartet (check out the groove they work up on “When I Close My Eyes”), but she brings in guests to put the needed touches on some of the performances. Bill Frisell offers his always well-blended guitar work on “A Taste of Honey,” “Get Together,” and the title track. Patrick Warren plays supplemental keyboards on four tracks, guitarist Greg Leisz is heard on four tracks as well, and Marc Anthony Thompson (who is represented as a songwriter on two of the tracks) lends harmonica and backing vocals to Wright’s reworking of Neil Young’s “Old Man.”

Speaking of Young, Wright does offer a real soul-hippie vibe on much of this CD, with covers of “Old Man” and the Youngblood’s flower child love anthem “Get Together.” Just like Cassandra Wilson, or any great singer for that matter, Wright can take fairly mundane material and make it sound truly inspired, breathing life into material that is technically beneath her. Never once is she condescending to the material or the listener, though—one senses that if Wright cares enough to interpret the material, it has meaning for her, and she shares that sense of meaning with us. That’s what we look for in singers, whether jazz, popular, or whatever.

Some are going to carp at the lack of uptempo material on this album, citing a certain level, meditative tone that is maintained throughout the disc without much rising or falling. But having shown that she can belt out blues or gospel-influenced tunes with the best of them, her restraint on the current album is admirable. If I have any complaint at all, it’s that Wright doesn’t present as many of her own songs on this CD as she did on Salt. On that album, many of the most admirable tracks (“Fire,” “Blue Rose,” “Lead the Way,” and the outstanding title track) were written by Wright. On Dreaming there are three Wright songs, two of them (“Hit the Ground” and “Trouble”) co-written with others. Wright is talented as a songwriter, and has a real knack for coming up with tunes that one can imagine others singing as well (a rarity in popular music these days).

Dreaming Wide Awake is a positive step in Wright’s career development and sidesteps many of the problems that can plague anticipated sophomore releases. Wright’s spiritual traveling companions include such talented jazz and soul artists as Cassandra Wilson, Nina Simone, and Meshell Ndegeocello. Dreaming Wide Awake demonstrates that she’s well poised to join such august company.