Judy Whitmore: Isn't It Romantic

"Take a page out of Judy Whitmore's playbook for life, and be inspired by a true modern-day Renaissance woman—cabaret and recording artist, best-selling author, and licensed jet pilot—whose passion for adventure has audiences and readers across America abandoning their fears and reawakening to long-forgotten dreams and new desires."

Thus Judy Whitmore, her web page. Ms. Whitmore, you may gather, is not a professional jazz singer Of course, it would be hard to know what exactly qualifies someone as a "professional jazz singer," unless it is graduating with a major in jazz vocal performance. Such programs do exist. But Ella Fitzgerald did not graduate from one, so credentials only mean so much, because Ella was surely a jazz singer. Ms Whitmore has also worked as a theater producer and a clinical psychologist, but music was her true passion. She cofounded a cabaret group in 2014. Whitmore's debut album, Can't We Be Friends, was released in 2020.

She is, no surprise, a capable singer, and she is backed by an equally capable, although occasionally boisterous band. Whitmore occasionally indulges her flair for the dramatic, and is joined by her vocal coach, Peisha McPhee, on "The Birth of the Blues." The entire recording is a rendezvous with the Great American Songbook, so if in a mood for its reprise, look no further. Richard Rodgers, Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen, and Hoagy Carmichael are all here. Followers of the vintage retro kick have "Sunday in New York" for the early 1960s. Oddly enough, an era of nuclear alerts and presidential assassinations is starting to look like Halcyon days in American history.

A more than respectable job for anyone, let alone a jet pilot who writes romance novels. Your ears will tell you all you need to know.

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