Jane Monheit digs Ella - and plans to keep on digging

Jazz singer Jane Monheit's musical home is the Great American Songbook. She showed a Naples, Florida audience on Friday, February 24, that with sensible bits of personal redecorating, it is still in very good hands.

Jane Monheit

She performed two 75-minute sold-out shows at Artis Naples' Daniels Pavilion, sharing her love for "First Lady of Song" Ella Fitzgerald. Material from Monheit's recording Songbook Sessions: Ella Fitzgerald (released last year on her own label, Emerald City Records) made up half of the night's repertoire. The other half consisted of Ella-related songs that Monheit has not yet recorded as part of this project.

Profiling singer Jane Monheit

Jane Monheit, Tanglewood 2010

The October issue of HotHouse is now out. It includes my profile of singer Jane Monheit, which you can find on p. 21 of the publication. 

Check it out to learn more about this passionate ambassador of the Great American Songbook. Her take on that responsibility is very interesting.

A tired tune walked into a bar...

There’s a musicians’ joke that goes something like this: “How many jazz singers does it take to sing ‘My Funny Valentine’ [or ‘Summertime’ or ‘(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66’ or ‘All of Me’]?”

Answer: “Apparently all of them.”     

Bah-dum-dum.

Only it’s no joke. Too many singers, and wannabees, go right to the tiredest of tunes in the Great American Songbook. It’s not that these are bad songs. Far from it. But the new purveyors show NO imagination. And most times they’re doing the great tunes an injustice.

They fail to seek out and freshen other excellent songs that they can identify with, illuminate and present to ears who might like to hear something different. Something that may have bypassed the listeners’ own radar screens, or something they loved but haven’t heard in a while. A singer's failure to do that is lazy - and insulting to his/her audience.