Rebecca Martin - When I Was Long Ago - (Digipack Packaging) - [CD]

Singers are usually judged by how they interpret classic songs. Singer/songwriter Rebecca Martin has been steadfast in developing her own sound that blurs the distinction between jazz and folk, but she's always been up for a challenge. When I Was Long Ago presents Martin the vocalist caressing new life into well-loved standards. She is assisted by an intimate combo featuring saxophonist Bill McHenry and bassist Larry Grenadier. REVIEW Rebecca Martin's vocals are like Modigiliani portraits. They share a sharply honed, less-is-more sensibility that, paradoxically, adds to their depth, their denseness and their haunting aftereffects. Martin has covered standards before, most recently and notably as guest artists on the fourth volume of Paul Motian's exceptional On Broadway series. Then, as now, by reducing them to their essence and allowing them to gradually unfurl, she enables remarkably fresh perspectives. Consider, for instance, how she strips away the pathos that habitually envelops "For All We Know" and, led by Bill McHenry's luring sax, reveals a sensuous fatalism that is far more cunning. Then listen to how craftily she intensifies the ache of "Lush Life" by inverting the expected path, tracing the hollows rather than riding the swells. And appreciate how she brightens the sweet optimism of "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams" not, as is too often the case, with blinding sunniness, but with a gentle contentment that seems shaped of slow-floating clouds. Exceptional as all eight of the album's standards are, it is the two least-familiar tracks that prove most affecting, in contrasting ways. First is "Cheer Up Charlie" from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, solely propelled by Larry Grenadier's bass and sung with pure, naked devotion to Martin and Grenadier's infant son, Charlie. It is immediately followed by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's menacingly atmospheric "Low Key Lightly" from the Anatomy of a Murder soundtrack, imbued by Martin with wistful, world-weary discernment and impishly retitled "Lucky in Love."- Christopher Loudon --Jazz Times - Nov. 2010