In retrospect, it seems kind of crazy that it's taken Tuck Andress and Patti Cathcart, who have been recording together as a husband-and-wife duo for 30 years, this long to do a Great American Songbook album. They've recorded jazz standards before, but this is the first time they've invested a whole album specifically in the songbook repertoire -- "It Might as Well Be Spring," "Old Devil Moon," "When I Fall in Love," etc. The results are as wonderful as you'd expect -- not, frankly, wonderful in any revelatory or even especially innovative ways, just wonderful in the standard Tuck & Patti way: technically incredible yet still tasteful, warm, and informed by the kind of nearly telepathic musical sympathy that only develops when you combine three decades of successful music-making with three decades of happy marriage. Highlights are a little bit difficult to pick out here, but the lightly swinging "'Deed I Do" and the utterly perfect "Embraceable You" do stand out from the program somewhat, and the combination of brilliant scat singing and equally brilliant guitar soloing on "A Foggy Day" is also worth noting. "The Very Thought of You" doesn't quite gel somehow, though the guitar solo is excellent. Overall, this is just one more nearly perfect Tuck & Patti album.
© Rick Anderson /TiVo