Mark Robinson: Some Small Dive

If you're going to go after the Great American Songbook—that is, music by Gershwin, Strayhorn, Mancini, and the like—you'd better bring some style and distinction to the table. San Francisco-based vocalist Mark Robinson does just that, indeed he does, with Some Small Dive, serving up his personal interpretations of a bunch of time-tested classics.

He's got it all: emotional depth, distinctive phrasing—occasionally a tad off-kilter, but never distractingly so—and a pure and unaffected straightforward zest of delivery. He's a vocalist obviously in love with the task he's taken on.

The disc's title is taken from a line in Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life": "I'll live a lush life, In some small dive..." You could call that tune the highlight, but the set is full of them: Henry Mancini's "Days of Wine and Roses," "A Ghost of a Chance," the Gershwins' "Embraceable You," the Henry "Sweets" Edison/Jon Hendricks gem "Centerpiece." For comparisons, Robinson's vocal style is similar to Hendricks', with a bit more buoyancy in the sound.

A beautiful surprise here is Antonio Carlos Jobim's gentle masterpiece "Waters of March." Most vocalists who cover this tune go with the Joao Gilberto hush, but Robinson puts some beef into his rendition, without losing the delicacy. Pianist David Austin works the keys with a tinkling fragility, making for a perfect accompanist/vocalist contrast.

Like the very best in this game—Sinatra or Tony Bennett—Robinson makes it all sound so effortless on this truly superb vocal jazz outing.