Jane Monheit – Taking a Chance on Love (2004)

Amazon.com
On her fourth album, Taking A Chance On Love, singer Jane Monheit makes her leap to the majors and the fit is a good one. As she’s proven on past efforts, Monheit is a traditional stylist who expertly mines American standards by balancing pop’s accessible sensibility and jazz’s rich complexity. The material could be, and has been, in worse hands than Monheit’s–her exceptional technique again brings these songs to life without taking liberties with structure, melody or odd arrangements. It’s her exceptional execution, tonal palette, and phrasing that gives these songs a sense of artistry. She also gets subtle support from an impressive cast of sidemen (including guest singer Michael Buble, bassists Ron Carter and Christian McBride, and guitarist Romero Lubambo) in a variety of contexts, ranging from jazz combos to orchestra to vocal-and-single-instrument duets. Highlights include the tender “Embraceable You,” the lushly orchestrated “Dancing in Dark” and the jaunty bebop version of “Honeysuckle Rose.” –-Tad Hendrickson

 

  Tracks

01. Honeysuckle Rose (Razaf, Waller) 3:38

02. In the Still of the Night (Porter) 5:06

03. Taking a Chance on Love (Duke, Fetter, Latouche) 3:19

04. Bill (Hammerstein, Kern, Wodehouse, Wodehouse) 5:16

05. I Won’t Dance (Fields, Hammerstein, Harbach, Kern, McHugh) 3:36

06. Too Late Now (Lane, Lerner) 5:21

07. Why Can’t You Behave? (Porter) 4:08

08. Do I Love You? (Porter) 4:53

09. Love Me or Leave Me (Donaldson, Kahn) 3:35

10. Embraceable You (Gershwin, Gershwin) 3:47

11. Dancing in the Dark (Dietz, Schwartz) 5:06

12. Over the Rainbow [*] (Arlen, Harburg) 3:54

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At the tender age of 20, New York vocalist Jane Monheit was the first runner-up in the 1998 Theolonius Monk Institute vocal competition, winning a $10,000 scholarship to further her musical education. Judges couldn’t exactly place her sound, which blended natural elegance with potent yet impressively controlled presentation, and by 2000 Monheit had joined Diana Krall as one of the highest-touted female talents in jazz. That May she signed to N-Coded and released her debut, Never Never Land. Angelic and conservative, Monheit’s structured set of ten popular standards illustrated her still-emerging vocal talents. Come Dream with Me arrived in 2001; it consisted of several standards as well as a few lesser-known jazz compositions. The album wasn’t as widely praised as her debut, but her growth as a performer was still evident. Since that time she has released several albums, including In the Sun in 2002, Taking a Chance on Love in 2004, the holiday-themed Season in 2005, and Surrender in 2007.