SANDY GRAHAM
...By Request
Jazz Link Enterprises

By Tom Ineck

Singer Sandy Graham justifiably gets the star treatment here, backed by a team of veterans that includes pianist Gerald Wiggins, guitarist Ron Anthony and drummer Ralph Penland. On three tracks, a six-piece string section creates a lush backdrop for Graham’s vocals. She also acquired the liner note-writing skills of the prolific Scott Yanow.

Graham has a swinging, lilting voice with a strong vibrato, a great combination for tunes like the clever opening title track, which also benefits from the tenor sax work of Herman Riley and Richard Simon’s walking bass line. Her expressive phrasing works well on “Here’s that Rainy Day/It’s Nice Weather for Ducks,” “My Heart Tells Me,” “Close Enough for Love,” “Love for Sale” and “Good Morning Heartache/Lover Man.”

The standard song list is wisely balanced with lesser-known tunes like Alec Wilder’s “Trouble is a Man,” the beautiful but obscure Melba Liston composition “Coat of Laughter,” Teri Thornton’s “Los Angeles,” and Ellington’s “The Brown Skin Gal in the Calico Dress.”

The strings warmly wrap Graham’s voice in a blanket of sound on the romantic ballads “Something I Dreamed Last Night,” “Love Story” and “Through a Long and Sleepless Night.”