Jenna Mammina & Rolf Sturm: Begin to Dance

Neither Jenna Mammina nor Rolf Sturm, together or solo, are strangers to these pages. Mammina released Under the Influence (MGR) in 2000 and Strum offered us his superb Young (Water Street Music) in 2016. The two of them showed up with Spark (Water Street Music) in 2015. Sturm is a nylon-string guitar specialist perfectly suited to provide foil to the coquettish and intelligent vocals of Mammina. Their Spark was well received and featured old and new music presented in new and often genre-jolting ways.

On Begin to Dance, the pair pick up where they left off with Spark, this time peppering jazz standards like "It's Only Love" and "All My Tomorrows" with BJ Thomas' "Hooked on a Feeling" mashed up with Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun." Sturm's guitar playing brings whatever is necessary to the songs to support Mammina's every whim. He is equally capable of providing the bare-bones chording for the Doobie Brothers' "Takin' it to the Streets" and the pleasant filigree he offers in Cheap Trick's "I Want You To Want Me." But it is the jazz tunes where the two excel. The pair hits their collective stride on "L-O-V-E" with Sturm turning in an exceptional hot-club solo. Mammina and Sturm make a great duo who program their performances with great thought and a true sense of humor.