Bryan Anthony: Look At Me Now

With his laid back, pithy way with a song, Bryan Anthony visits a play list of standards for his initial album. Not the strong baritone of a Vic Damone or Tony Bennett, Anthony relies on style which emphasizes sentimentality, romance and elegance as he delivers on this set of standards in a pleasant soothing manner. Anthony is not going to blow away your speakers. He also has a very personal way of delivering the tune as if you were the sole person in the listening audience. He engages very direct and well. With his light voice (coming from a singer who sounds as if he is on his early 20's) he handles such songs as "My Foolish Heart", "Oh! Look At Me Now" (without the Sinatra oomph and bounce) and "The Nearness of You" with a high level hopefulness and naivete, which I found refreshing. But he can swing in something less than a boisterous manner on such cuts as "On the Road to Mandalay"

Helping to make this CD a pretty good vocal buy is the quality of the people who are on this set with Anthony. Special note has to be made of the contributions of pianist Pete Malinverni (who has made several fine trio albums of his own) and tenor saxophonist, Jason Rigby. Look at Me Now offers around 45 minutes of a captivating mix of vocals and instrumental work. More about NuJazzCity can be found at www.NuJazzCity.com.