Tania Grubbs: The Sound of Love

Meet a person from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and you are likely to get a Chamber of Commerce-worthy commendation of their city's greatness. When it comes to jazz, the civic pride is more than warranted; the Steel City was home to immortals such as Earl Hines, Mary Lou Williams, Art Blakey and Kenny Clarke. Vocalist Tania Grubbs grew up just over the state line in Ohio, but she has lived and worked in The 'Burgh, as natives affectionately call it, for some years. And though she might not have intended it as such, The Sound of Love (TRAVLIN' Music, 2024) arrives as a love letter to her adopted hometown.

Henry Mancini, who grew up just downriver of Pittsburgh in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, wrote lovely melodies that are beginning to get their due from singers and instrumentalists alike. "Dreamsville" and "Two For The Road" have been turning up a lot lately and they get balmy, effective interpretations here. But Grubbs makes an excellent case for a Mancini rarity, "Slow Hot Wind," in a sultry, nearly R&B arrangement by her bassist husband Jeff Grubbs that recalls the minimalist suavity of Bob James' CTI-era charts (that's a compliment, by the way).

Pittsburgher Billy Strayhorn is represented by a single ballad chorus of "Something To Live For" with the essential verse, but one could make the case that the pastel harmonies of Charles Mingus' "Duke Ellington's Sound Of Love," easily could have been dedicated to the man Duke Ellington called "Sweet Pea." Grubbs navigates the intervallic leaps of Mingus' swooping, chromatic melody without fear. Though "If You Could See Me Now," was composed by Cleveland native Tadd Dameron, it was long associated with its first great interpreter, Billy Eckstine, who grew up in Pittsburgh's Highland Park neighborhood.

A great deal of the allure of The Sound of Love comes from the close rapport of the band. Pianist David Budway's instincts as an accompanist were honed to a fine polish on the Pittsburgh scene in the '80s and '90s, often with his late sister Maureen Budway. As a composer, Budway's "I Can Tell You Are Always There" is a soul-tinged quiet stormer. Guitarist Ron Affif, now based in Los Angeles, dips into the blues lexicon of fellow Steel City guitarists such as George Benson and Jimmy Ponder while Pittsburgh drummer James Johnson III is a model of restraint and taste. Singers dream of drummers like him. Jeff Grubbs, who has a side hustle in the bass section of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, contributes arrangements that transform the session's ballads into miniature tone poems.

The up-tempo numbers are sprightly, too, with Grubbs' crisp articulation accenting the piquancy of lyrics written by Iola Brubeck for her husband Dave's "Strange Meadowlark" and Jon Hendricks' to Miles Davis' bebop line "Four." Grubbs is a poetic lyricist herself on the program's sole original composition, the singer-songwriter-y "The Sculptor's Hands."

Something else to make Pittsburghers proud: the clear and atmospheric recording by engineer Jay Dudt.

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