Customer Reviews

Sings the Songs of Jerome Kern - With Dick Hyman at the Piano

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Kern is a very conservative musicwriter and wouldn't be pleased if his work is given a very experimental treatment. For this, Ms. Stewart has abided to that dictum and the result is simply undiluted Kern melodies. Sandy's velvety voice and with Dick Hyman accompanying her on the piano, the result is simply thrilling!

All the 21 songs (6 are part of a 2-parts medley) are all familiar to anyone who knows Kern although it would be my first time to hear Day Dreaming penned by Gus Khan and Dorothy Field's How'd You Like To Spoon With Me. As always, Kern came up with beautiful melodies even to such rarely heard compositions. This is one of the best Kern Songbook - the other one would be Margaret Whiting but I would say this one is more polished. Ella Fitzgerald recorded one but it pales in comparison with her other songbooks. Elizabeth Welch did an exceptional recording under a British label. They all have their own qualities but Ms. Stewart did a remarkable compilation of Kern's greatest in an intimate setting. This is a 4.5 stars actually!

Too bad, I don't see much of her recordings to discover more.

I just saw Sandy Stewart and her gifted son, jazz pianist Bill Charlap, at the Old Mill Inn as part of the Toronto Jazz Festival. She is simply an amazing singer and can put across a lyric with grace and elegance wrapped around true emotion. And vocal control and technique to burn! A couple of numbers left the audience in awe. I can only compare her with (her friend) Carol Sloane. Enough said. The duo album with Bill Charlap is beyond belief. This earlier album of Jerome Kern favorites and some unknown songs was recorded during two sessions several years apart. It is in the top class of Kern albums. André -- Toronto