Jane Monheit's third album attempts to combine a number of elements: jazz standards, Brazilian repertoire, ballads lushly orchestrated by
Alan Broadbent and
Vince Mendoza, and even pop vehicles originally sung by
Linda Ronstadt and
Judy Collins. The young vocalist is usually at her best fronting a small combo; here one wishes she had relied more on her working band with pianist Michael Kanan, bassist Joe Martin, tenor saxophonist
Joel Frahm, and drummer/husband
Rick Montalbano. It is they who provide this record's most rewarding moments: Martin reharmonizes
Ellington's "Just Squeeze Me"; Kanan presents a funky take on "Cheek to Cheek" and duets with Monheit on an unusually slow "Tea for Two." On these tracks one can hear Monheit taking vocal risks, testing her mettle with bluesy inflections and bold peaks in volume. Much of the rest of the album is closer to
Streisand than
Sarah Vaughan, however. The final four tracks bog down in slow tempos and a vanilla-syrup aesthetic; Monheit's Portuguese-language rendition of Ivan Lins' "Comecar de Novo" seems especially contrived. But her duet with guitarist
Rene Toledo on "Chega de Saudade" is more convincing, and Lins' guest appearance on his own "Once I Walked in the Sun" provides some lilting harmonic tensions. [The album was also released in a Dual Disc format featuring surround sound and bonus multimedia content.]
![In the Sun [DualDisc]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0676628410325_p0_v1_s550x406.jpg)
![In the Sun [DualDisc]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0676628410325_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg)
![In the Sun [DualDisc]](http://img.images-bn.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v8.4.9)
