Is life online in the 21st century a blessing or a curse? One could make a case either way, but if you’re Toronto-based vocalist and songwriter Ori Dagan (@oridaganjazz), one thing is certain: there’s a great material to be mined for a lyric, something Dagan always delivers with a wry and agile sense of swing. Click Right Here, praised by John Devenish of JAZZ.FM91 as “fun, provocative, fancy-free and spirited,” and by journalist and author Jeanne Beker as “the perfect balance between modernity and nostalgia,” is Dagan’s first album of original material. It offers a joyful escape from, and timely reflection upon, a world spinning out of control. Themes include online dating, social media, technological troubles, and the quest for freedom and equality in a divided world.

Dagan’s right-hand man on Click Right Here, his fourth studio effort, is a guitarist and musical director Nathan Hiltz, whose crackling arrangements and brilliant solos bring the songs to life. Hiltz fronts a versatile eight-piece band comprised of some of Canada’s finest: pianist Attila Fias, bassist Alex Bellegarde, drummer Ben Wittman, tenor saxophonist Colleen Allen, alto saxophonist Alison Young, trombonist William Carn, and trumpeter Andrew McAnsh. They are featured to brilliant effect on the potent band vehicle “21st-Century Blues.” In addition to being Dagan’s first recording with horns, Click Right Here also includes his first male duet, a romp of a minor-key tune called “Going That Counts,” featuring Toronto rising-star vocalist Donovan Locke. Rapper Erik Flow cowrote the blistering opener “Viruses,” built around a prominent omitted expletive that lends the song a distinct rhythmic hiccup.

Five-time JUNO Award winner and three-time GRAMMY nominee Jane Bunnett, of Spirits of Havana fame, contributes scintillating flute on “Hashtag World” and soprano sax on “Viruses.” Four-time JUNO winner Simone Denny (Love Inc.) appears on a bonus cover: a relaxed and incisive interpretation of The Buggles’ 1979 smash hit “Video Killed the Radio Star,” the definitive earworm of earliest MTV. Rebecca Hennessy serves as guest arranger on the Buggles cover as well as an updated take on Dagan’s 2012 single “Googleable,” replete with virtuosic scat breaks and arch references (“Google Apps are the best, skeptics eventually clue in / who might have guessed, other than Marshall McLuhan”). The album was recorded by GRAMMY-nominated engineer Jeremy Darby at Canterbury Music Company and co-produced by Macedonian multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and producer Davor Jordanovski.

Dagan’s previous recordings, S’Cat Got My Tongue (2009) and Less Than Three <3 (2012), solidified his forward-thinking artistic voice. In 2017, with the support of over 200 crowdfunding contributors, he created the visual album Nathaniel: A Tribute to Nat King Cole, a first of its kind in the jazz genre — a collection of 12 music videos that won critical acclaim and recognition at film festivals worldwide, as well as an official showcase at SXSW.

Dagan’s rich bass-baritone is unmistakable; his irreverent songcraft speaks to the lineage of Nat Cole novelty numbers and the impeccably swinging humor of the late Bob Dorough and Dave Frishberg. His scat singing has the natural, fluid, bop-inflected feel of the best in that idiom. Click Right Here, his most ambitious project to date, is sure to take him to new destinations, onstage and online.