Those who have seen Terese Genecco perform live know that she is a cabaret superstar. For those who haven’t, this CD will sustain the Wall Street Journal’s Will Friedwald's claim that “Ms. Genecco makes every show seem like New Year's Eve.” With her strong and warm voice and impeccably clear diction, she delivers a recording that is vocally, rhythmically and stylistically varied and compelling.

The CD is definitively a jazz recording, but the arrangements do not wrench the songs from the familiar, and will satisfy listeners with a nostalgia for standards, such as the two Cole Porter songs, “What Is This Thing Called Love?” and “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.” Genecco's own arrangement of “The Thrill Is Gone” brings out its intrinsic mournful, bluesy quality, so that it is difficult to imagine it sung any other way. The traditional “Frankie and Johnny”—how Johnny did Frankie wrong with Nellie Bly—is a long song, and Genecco proves herself to be a consummate and dramatic musical storyteller. Instrumental interludes by members of her “Little Big Band” complement the songs with their rich sounds and sometimes plaintive yearning.

Variety is added to the standards with “Washington Square” and its celebration of individual choice in lifestyles. “Meglio Stasera” (“It Had Better Be Tonight”) supplies a Latin rhythm. Still, the CD emphasizes the familiar: “A Lot of Livin’ to Do”; “Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home”; “You’re My Thrill.”

To combine the familiar and unfamiliar so that the songs are both remembered and “new” takes true talent. Terese Genecco has it. This is a CD to be relished.

Barbara Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
May/June 2012
www.cabaretscenes.org