Naama Gheber: Dream Dancing

Vocalist Naama Gheber released her debut recording Dearly Beloved (Cellar Live, 2020) immediately before the pandemic. In spite of this interruption in the traditional marketing of music, the recording received much positive attention within the All About Jazz community and other outlets.

Since the easing of restrictions, Gheber has turned things upside down by releasing as singles her entire upcoming EP If I Knew Then, slated for the street in November. Gheber has already released, "Old Mother Hubbard" , "I'm A Fool To Want You", "You're Driving Me Crazy", and now, in August 2022, the Cole Porter composition, "Dream Dancing." Originally performed as an instrumental in the 1941 film You'll Never Get Rich (Columbia Pictures), the song was later performed and recorded by Fred Astaire supported by Harry Sosnik and his Orchestra and The Delta Rhythm Boys for Decca Records.

What Gheber brings to the song is the youthful enthusiasm of discovery. Rather than subject the standard to the rigors of intense improvisation and invention, Gheber presents the song straight ahead, allowing the listener to hear what Porter intended for the song. She does this with the support of the standard jazz piano trio made up of pianist Ben Paterson, bassist Neal Miner, and drummer Evan Sherman. The song begins with the brief shimmer of a shaken tambourine followed by piano and bass, circling a breezy and relaxed emotional center. The arrangement affords Gheber a plush yet tactile sonic environment from which to deliver her smart and simply presented interpretation. While the jazz listening community is presented with a wealth of good interpretations of standards, few great ones, like Gheber's, emerge.