Libby York: Sunday in New York

My musical introduction to Libby York was the only negative aspect of this album. Lionel Hampton's jazz standard "Midnight Sun" is performed by a husky-voiced York, with perhaps Chris Connor in mind, but I feel that she was uncomfortable with the pacing of the song. In the lyrics "stardust on my sleeve" and "icy, white and crystalline," the words "stardust" and "icy" are repeated as embellishments. After a tenor sax solo by Frank Wess, she repeats the same routine. I'm not sure if she was unhappy with the tacit moment between the words or that she wanted to show some improvisational skills, but the end result was that it spoiled the track.

However, the remainder of the album is fine with mid-tempo numbers like the title tune, "Like Someone in Love" and the Michael Franks tune "Down in Brazil." "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good To You" which features Wess cranking out another beauty of a solo, is also altered by York, but this time it seems to have worked. A new set of lyrics are added and she includes Wess in the banter with (after his solo): "Frank, if love makes me treat you the way that I do...." The ballads, "All My Tomorrows" and "That's All," are well delivered.

Libby York has surrounded herself with some of the best New York musicians. In addition to the famed Mr. Wess, Renee Rosnes is one of the brightest pianist-composer and arrangers in town, performing here alongside her husband Billy Drummond, drums and Todd Coolman, bass. My suspicion is that York is an excellent live performer and is quite comfortable working in the cabaret circuit. The inclusion of the album's surprise entry, "I Go For That," an early Frank Loesser song from the late 1930s, which sounds oddly contemporary, was a fine choice—but it's hard to believe that a jazz vocalist would have dug that one up.

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