The third release from a singer who I understand is also a best selling novelist, a commercial jet pilot, a marriage and family therapist and, among other things, rides horses and cans peaches - sounds like an updated version of I Can't Get Started!
Oh yes, another thing, she really can sing!
A choice selection of covers that have probably been done by everyone from Bing to Sting (well maybe not Sting but as it rhymes with Bing ...) and it has to be said Judy loses nothing by comparison although maybe Frank just edged her on Wee Small Hours.
The piano solos by Hendelman who did most of the arrangements, Bell's beautiful fluting and Woodward's booting sax all contribute magnificently as does Rocha with some good old blues blasting trumpet on, naturally, Birth of the Blues. Judy is joined on this one by Peisha McPhee and they find some great harmonies on that grand old warhorse. At times, those harmonies reminded me of The Sentimentalists on TD's recording of On the Sunny Side of the Street and, for me, there is no greater praise than that!
However, amongst all these great songs, the one that really made it for me is the title song Isn't it Romantic. Although well recorded by many artists since it first was sung by Maurice Chevalier in a 1932 film, the Rodgers and Hart song rarely turns up either vocally or instrumentally at street level jams. Composer Alec Wilder, who knew a thing or two about these matters, called Isn't it Romantic "A perfect song" and Judy Whitmore does nothing to prove him wrong!
Lance
Available now.
It Could Happen to You; I Remember You; Sunday in New York; You go to my Head; The Nearness of You; The Birth of the Blues; Speak Low; Isn't it Romantic; In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning; But Beautiful; Just a Little Lovin'; Hallelujah I Love Him so.
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