Word: monheit
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Could there be a better time to be Jane Monheit? She's young, she's great looking, she's the hottest thing in jazz since the Ken Burns series ended--it has ended, hasn't it?--and the only thing difficult in her life, she says, is "being an adult...
...pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Christian McBride, saxophonist Michael Brecker. Most of all, her voice is a silken, controlled wonder that is both a genetic gift and the product of superb training. When she wraps it around one of the classic American songs she loves to sing, you know Jane Monheit can't miss. She has, in a word, everything...
...hard to imagine so much controversy provoked by a young woman who shuffles around the recording studio in fluffy red slippers, looking like a teenager on a sleepover at a girlfriend's house. Professionally, though, she's maturing fast. For one thing, Monheit knows how not to let her critics get any traction. What did she think about a particularly rough piece in the New York Times magazine last December? "I learn something from everyone who writes about me," she says, with hardly any coyness...
...most vivid evidence of her quickening maturity rests in her singing. If you heard her a year ago, then four months ago, and then this week, you might find it hard to believe it's all one performer. In her live appearances, Monheit has moved from visible self-consciousness to something close to comfortable; on her recordings, she's crossing into territory she never could have traversed successfully only months ago. Saxophonist Brecker, a seven-time Grammy winner, says, "From the moment I walked into the studio and heard her sing, I sensed I was in the presence...
...this supremely satisfying CD, trumpeter Terence Blanchard, with the help of four jazz divas, pays tribute to the music of songwriting great Jimmy McHugh. Diana Krall whisks in like winter, offering a chilly, elegant take on the title song; newcomer Jane Monheit is spring, with a dewy rendition of Too Young to Go Steady; Dianne Reeves' summery I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me offers gentle warmth; and Cassandra Wilson's autumnal Sunny Side of the Street is laden with loss but colored with beautiful hues. Blanchard blows his way through these songs with charming, restrained...