The Tender Trap
Manhattan Transfer's Janis Siegel swings both blues and ballads on this, her first album for Monarch. What the songs have in common is that they all dwell on the proposition of love, a universal theme that unites material by artists as disparate asFred Astaire("Change Partners") andMuddy Waters("I Just Want to Make Love to You"). Siegel proves herself an adequate interpreter, despite sometimes falling into that tradition that mistakenly thinksEthel Mermanis as important asBillie Holiday. That is, sometimes the whole routine is a little stiff (especiallyHank Crawford's alto solo on "The Tender Trap"). However, for the most part, Siegel has assembled a fairly good band here, featuring Crawford,Michael Brecker,Victor Lewis, andFred Hersch(who plays nice understated piano on the album's opener, "That Old Black Magic," as well as "How Deep Is the Ocean" and a score of others). While Siegel is noDinah Washington, she holds her own with most of the material, despite sometimes going off the deep end into swing revival fakery. But as she's been at it a long while, there's no need to doubt her authenticity.--Joe S. Harrington