Insane for Jane!

Jane Monheit is my FAVORITE contemporary female jazz vocalist.  I bought Jane's debut cd "Never Never Land" back in 2000 and immediately fell in love.  

She has a pure passionate voice who emotes beautiful ballads and can also swing and scat like crazy.  With her sophomore release "Come Dream with Me,"  I was obsessed.  Check out this BEAUTIFUL rendition of OVER THE RAINBOW from that release.

The video is from a slightly different version featured on the "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" soundtrack.  I prefer the one from "Come Dream With Me," but this gives you an idea of her wonderful vocals.

She followed with was one of my favorite releases "In The Sun" which has a lot of Brazilian repertoire, a cover of one of my favorite songs of all time SOME OTHER TIME,  and this "KICKIN" version of CHEEK TO CHEEK.

Next was a live album and dvd "Live from the Rainbow Room."  I had the WONDERFUL pleasure of seeing jane in concert in 2001.  This album and dvd do a great job of capturing her fantastic live act.

Over the next few years she released a "Taking A Chance on Love" (tribute to movie musicals), "The Best of Jane Monheit," "This Season" (wonderful Christmas release),  and "Surrender" (heavily bossa nova influenced.)  She also released a second dvd after the release of TAKING A CHANCE ON LOVE.

Here's a cute video of her in the studio recording her Christmas album.

This past Tuesday she released "The Lovers, the Dreamers and Me."  She turned 30 this year AND became a mother.  This is definitely reflected in the music.  She recorded half of the album before motherhood and the rest after her son Jack was born.  The last song (which inspired the title) is a lovely version of the RAINBOW CONNECTION for him.

This album is more subtle than some of her swingin' records, but it is a wonderful nuanced collection of music.  She covers Corinne Bailey Rae's LIKE A STAR, Fiona Apple's SLOW LIKE HONEY, and Paul Simon's I DO IT FOR YOUR LOVE.  In the standards department you find SOMETHING COOL, I'M GLAD THERE IS YOU, Bacharach's THIS GIRL'S IN LOVE WITH YOU, and another favorite song of mine from the musical "On The Town" called LUCKY TO BE ME.  I love the element of this album being influenced by her son.  She comments on recording while being pregnant.  “It was,” she recalls, “a really neat feeling to be in the studio with my son in there with me, singing beautiful tunes like “I’m Glad There Is You” and ”Lucky to Be Me.”

She has released a lot of wonderful material.  If you are starting out.  I would suggest starting with her greatest hits "The Best of Jane Monheit."  It is a really nice overview of her material leading up to 2005.  I will try and post an imix of MY favorites soon to this blog.

If you just want to download a song or two for now.  I would probably say go with OVER THE RAINBOW and CHEEK TO CHEEK (although that's a really hard decision!)