Chris Bennett: Sail Away: The Tahiti Sessions (2010)

C. MICHAEL BAILEY,

C. Michael Bailey

Senior Contributor since 1997

...wants to know if Gene Harris is playing "Summertime" in Heaven...

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Published: November 2, 2010

Chris Bennett: Sail Away: The Tahiti Sessions

Track review of "These Foolish Things"

Vocalist Christ Bennett publishes her 11th recording, Sail Away: The Tahiti Sessions amid an impressive population of like-minded recordings, and still manages to attract attention. Bennett dons the silk of a jazz singer and composer as easily as she navigated such disparate genre as disco and adult contemporary pop. Sail Away is approximately 50/50 standards and Bennett originals. Her choice of standards, while "standard," still manage to provide new and careful insight into the American Songbook.

"These Foolish Things" was composed by the songwriting team of Eric Maschwitz (lyrics) and Jack Strachey (music) in 1936. The song was part of a group called "May Fair Songs,"that also included "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," written by Maschwitz under the pen-name Holt Marvell. It has since become a ballad standard, demanding a certain sensitivity of its interpreters.

Bennett elects to give the song a light treatment—just her, pianist Eric Doney Eric Doney
, and a tasteful hint of strings. Bennett's voice is perfectly suited for such fare. Perfectly balanced with a crystalline quality that is both durable and delicate, Bennett's singing immediately captures the longing of the song's protagonist. Doney never burdens Bennett, strolling with her wistfully. Bennett adheres to the melody, a reminder that the composers did know that they were doing. There is precious little song craft like this today.