Music Is My Life
After her long association with GRP Records, this is Diane Schuur's first recording for Atlantic. With label founder Ahmet Ertegun serving as one of the album's three producers, Schuur applies her powerful, free-ranging voice to a mostly quiet collection of familiar standards and a few lesser-known selections ("Good Morning Heartache") well suited to Schuur's emotive interpretations. In a romantic, late-night state of mind on most of the disc's 11 tracks, Schuur sounds as though she's enjoying herself from start to finish. She opens with playful vocalise on "Invitation" and concludes with a dramatic a cappella version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," where one moment her voice rattles windows, then seconds later shifts to a whisper. Her languid, nine-minute take on "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" is a sultry, beguiling confessional, and her sophisticated swing onCole Porter's "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" sets the piece aglow. The title track is a pleasant, pop-structured affair, likely designed with radio airplay in mind, and the blues, gospel, and R&B; influences found in earlier works are not as evident in this, a more subdued, seductive, and consistently charming collection.--Terry Wood