Jazz Articles

Marlene VerPlanck Loves Johnny Mercer

by Mark Barnett
February 10, 2019

Getting Started If you're new to jazz, go to our Getting Into Jazz primer for some hints on how to listen. Capsule An outstanding sampler of Mercer's lyrics, served up by a first-class singer who deserved to be better known. Background How many song lyrics did this man write? Are you ready? 1,200, according to the Johnny Mercer Foundation. They weren't all hits, of course, but each of the 54 Mercer songs listed in Wikipedia is ...

Marlene VerPlanck: The Mood I’m In

by C. Michael Bailey
January 11, 2016

Marlene VerPlanck has been recording since 1955. In round numbers, that is 60 years. She is a natural singer in the same way that Frank Sinatra, Roseanna Vitro, and Lyn Stanley are natural singers... they open their respective mouths and music just comes out. And, at the far end of this career, VerPlanck sounds very good. Age has not diminished her singing as it has in many of her peers singing at the bright age of 82. So, immediately, hats ...

Eva Cassidy: Nightbird

by C. Michael Bailey
January 8, 2016

The late singer/guitarist Eva Cassidy (1963-1996) was a possibility nature did not allow fulfilled. Barely started in what promised to be a successful career, Cassidy died at 33 from malignant melanoma, the same year her notable Live at Blues Alley (Eva Music) was recorded and released. The present Nightbird is the expansion and 20th Anniversary celebration of a life ended too soon and a recording promising so much. Recorded January 3, 1996, Cassidy would be gone by November...a streak of ...

Marlene VerPlanck: Once There Was A Moon

by Andrew Velez
February 21, 2009

Marlene VerPlanck is a singing canary of the old- fashioned sort--one who consistently picks great songs and then sings them in a brightly chirping soprano so that every single lyric is quite intelligible. The songs come out radiating an aura of a singer in love with what she's doing. Maybe that all ought to be commonplace in music, but it isn't. On Once There Was A Moon she continues to demonstrate what a reliable custodian she is of the American ...

Daryl Sherman: New O'leans

by Ken Dryden
October 11, 2008

Singer/pianist Daryl Sherman has been a fixture on the Manhattan music scene for years, playing various clubs since her arrival in 1974 and ending a 14-year run at the Waldorf-Astoria earlier this year. New O’Leans is her tribute to the survival spirit of the Crescent City’s residents, still present after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, where a parade is possible any day for any occasion.Joined by several of the city’s top jazz musicians, including guitarist James ...

Marlene VerPlanck: "NOW!"

by Jim Santella
August 20, 2005

With a stellar piano trio and special guests on hand, vocalist Marlene VerPlanck shapes her 19th solo album around classic romance songs and pleasant pieces that remain somewhat underused.

“Pretty Blue," by Norman Simmons and Joe Williams, paints a lovely picture of the happy feeling that we get when music fills the room and folks nestle in for an evening of comforting thoughts. “NOW!," by J. Billy VerPlanck and Leon Nock, sizzles slowly with heartfelt passion, creating an ...