Keep the title of Jane Monheit’s latest album in mind as you listen to it. Whether classic (Cole Porter’s “Get Out of Town”) or contemporary (Paul Simon’s “I Do It for Your Love”), Monheit makes the thirteen numbers on the album deliciously sensual or poignantly dreamy—making them her own, in other words.

With her butterscotch voice and seemingly casual (but clearly very careful) phrasing, Monheit finds the dream in romance and the romance in dreams throughout the album. Her take on Comden & Green/Bernstein’s “Lucky to Be Me” is soft and sweet, warm like embers in a fireplace; her reimagining of Fiona Apple’s “Slow Like Honey” is a direct challenge, a spark meant to burn; and her interpretation of Billy Barnes’ “Something Cool” is somewhere between the two: sly and quietly sensual rather than joyous or defiant.

The bright and cheerful “A Primera Vez” (performed in Portuguese) adds some up-tempo musical color to the album, while “No Tomorrow” is filled with longing and quiet passion. “The Rainbow Connection,” simple and lovely, ends the album with the mood of a lullaby, casting a note of innocence over the songs that precede it. It’s a sweet, gentle ending to an emotionally intense album, and one that nicely caps her career to date and sets the stage for what’s to come.

Jena Tesse Fox
Cabaret Scenes
June 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org