This is the first Kevin Mahogany (what a name for jazz singer!) album I've bought, but I suspect it won't be the last. I'd long thought that there are lots of good female jazz singers around these days, but where were all the guys? Well, I think I've found one. Kevin has chosen a well-mixed selection of songs for this album : about half are self-written, the rest are all from well-known musicians and composers. There are a couple of standards like "Nature Boy" and "In The Wee Small Hours of the Morning". The usual danger with items like these is that they are either poor copies of other singers (in this case Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra) or else in order to make them unique the artist just ends up making them sound plain weird and doesn't do justice to the original melodies. Mr. Mahogany successfuly treads the narrow line in between to make sure you know both the tune and that it's his version of it. There are other songs he has taken such as Charlie Mingus' "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" (which I'd never heard as a vocal version before), and Jon Hendrick's vocalese "Cloudburst" where he applies quite different techniques and proves just as successful. His voice is agile and beautifully controlled which makes his scat singing a joy to listen to - I thought this was almost a lost art. There's one odd point on the album which I guess must be down to contractual or diary issues. The saxophonist Joe Lovano, whom I admire greatly, appears but only on the first 3 tracks. Maybe he couldn't make the other recording dates - who knows. A real shame as his contribution on these is excellent. Are there any weak points? Well, yes. The lightest and most 'easy-listening' track on the CD is unfortunately one of Kevin's own : "I Believe She Was Talking 'Bout Me". This is sung as a duet with Randy Travis (I had to check to find out who he is - I'm not in to country) and while it sounds as though they enjoyed hamming it up in the studio, it really is too lightweight to live alongside the other interpretations on this disc. You want to listen to the others time after time, and this one doesn't really merit repeat hearing too often. You can get tired of it. But hey, if this is the worst I can say, it shows how good the rest must be. I've given this album 4 stars but don't think of this a second league award. I tend to reserve 5 stars for proven classics beyond dispute - I suspect no more than about a dozen CDs out of my collection of 500+ would merit 5 stars. As far as I'm concerned 4 is top quality modern jazz/blues and this is it.
