For her first album under her name,
Connie Evingson has chosen Broadway musicals as the session's theme, with a heavy dose of melodies written by Lerner and Loewe. Fortunately, rather than just parroting the way these gems were performed in their original settings,
Evingson has adopted unique arrangements to present this well-known music in a very novel and entertaining manner. She is joined in this endeavor with outstanding musicians from Minnesota's Twin Cities area, who happily engage with her as they present material from some of the Great White Way's finest musical moments. "I've Grown Accustomed to His Face" from My Fair Lady is done as a torch song with Sanford Moore's piano creating the necessary melancholia. "Lazy Afternoon" from The Golden Apple is a haunting duet between
Evingson and the guitar of
Joan Griffith. The vocalist somehow manages to transform the plaintive "Wouldn't It Be Loverly into the blues, again with Moore's piano in tow. The title tune, "I Have Dreamed" from The King and I), is as lovely as it was in the 1951 original production;
Dave Jensen's open, melodic flugelhorn melds with
Evingson's pop-tinged rendition.
Dave Karr's flute virtuosity is featured on "I'm Flying," where
Evingson recalls cleverly placed snippets from "Over the Rainbow" and "Fly Me to the Moon" to help create a sensation of soaring. A standout on the album is the moody, moving "Lonely House" from the
Langston Hughes/
Kurt Weill music for Street Scene. Jerry Rubino's cello and the multi-instrumentalist Karr's
Lester Young-like clarinet create the haunting, chamber-music setting surrounding
Evingson to underscore her distinctive interpretation of this tune. "On the Street Where You Live starts off as slow ballad then segues into an upbeat swinger, with
Kathy Jensen's tenor sharing center stage.
If
I Have Dreamed is any indication,
Evingson has a fine future as a performing and recording artist. She is armed not only with the requisite vocal technical skills, but with an imaginative and ingenious interpretative expertise which she displays to good effect on this album. ~ Dave Nathan