Christine Fawson: It Could Happen to You

A trumpet player who sings or a singer who plays trumpet? Christine Fawson puts those questions to the test (again) on It Could Happen to You, the fifth recording under her leadership, playing trumpet and singing on every one of the album's 11 carefully-mined selections from the Great American Songbook. The obvious answer is that Fawson is both a trumpet player who sings and a singer who plays trumpet, which would be beside the point if she did not do both so marvelously well.

Many another instrumentalist has decided to widen his or her repertoire by adding a voice to the mix, more often than not with less than salutary results. The same cannot be said of Fawson, who is so impressive in either guise that she could make a decent living as a singer (which she has) or trumpet player (ditto). And should she ever need a backup plan, she is also an educator who taught for 14 years at the Berklee College of Music.

Most of the tunes on It Could Happen to You are well known, as are their authors, who include Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael, Irving Berlin, Rodgers, Hart, and the Gershwin brothers. Fawson sings them basically as written, using rhythmic changes and occasional scatting (as well as the trumpet, often muted) for variety. She is aided and abetted by a blue-chip rhythm section: pianist Tim Ray, bassist Dave Zinno and drummer Casey Scheuerell, each of whom is pivotal to the album's overall temper and ambience.

Fawson sings the way she plays trumpet: bright as sunlight, always squarely on-key, with an abundance of warmth and personality. Those indispensable traits hold her in good stead throughout, starting with the album's alluring title song, written by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen and introduced by Dorothy Lamour in the 1944 film, And the Angels Sing. Fawson gives Porter's "It's All Right with Me" a merry ride, using the proper blend of discretion and come-hither charm, before tackling what may seem an odd choice, Carmichael and Johnny Mercer's easygoing "Lazybones," which works surprisingly well, thanks in part to superb counterpoint by Ray, who then sits in as Fawson's lone accompanist on Berlin's plaintive "What'll I Do."

Fawson comes out scatting on Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's "My Heart Stood Still," then uses the muted trumpet to announce another Burke and Van Heusen classic, "Like Someone in Love," which was introduced by Dinah Shore in 1944 and popularized a year later by Bing Crosby. She sings the seldom-heard verse on Don Raye and Gene DePaul's "You Don't Know What Love Is" before cruising through Ray's surprisingly upbeat arrangement, and wrings the last ounce of earnestness from Carl Fischer and Bill Carey's "You've Changed." A pair of songs by the Gershwin brothers follow, the first a curiously undervalued treasure, "I Was Doing All Right," from the 1938 film The Goldwyn Follies (superb bass solo by Zinno), the second the far better-known "Oh, Lady Be Good" (wherein Fawson, Ray and Scheurell deliver awesome solos). Fawson neatly wraps the package with another of Porter's many masterworks, "Every Time We Say Goodbye."

When it comes to singing, playing trumpet, connecting with her teammates and simply having a wonderful time doing all of the above, Fawson is a tough act to follow, and It Could Happen to You is a clear-cut winner from start to finish.