Jane Scheckter

I’ve (Still) Got My Standards

Birdland, NYC, August 25, 2018

Reviewed by Elizabeth Ahlfors for Cabaret Scenes

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jpg” alt=”” width=”212″ height=”212″ /> Jane Scheckter

Jane Scheckter brought to Birdland a jewel box of songs from her landmark debut album of 30 years ago, I’ve Got My Standards, which had pianist Mike Renzi, Jay Leonhart on bass, and the late drummer, Grady Tate. Tate died in 2017, and this one-night-only show not only saluted the album but also celebrated Tate, a renowned jazz drummer.
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Drummer Vito Lesczak neatly rounded out the rhythm section in this show. 

Telling intimate tales with the tantalizing swing of jazz, Scheckter, Renzi, and Leonhart also added selections from their Standards follow-up recording, Double Standards. Songs such as “Fun to Be Fooled” (Harold Arlen/Ira Gershwin/E.

Y. Harburg), displayed her deliberate sense of phrasing and stress. Adding beautiful ballads to the lineup, Scheckter’s sensitivity stands out, as she stands still, eyes closed, seemingly lost in a reverie. Her lush rendition of Irving Berlin’s “I Got Lost in His Arms” was sumptuous with a yearning stress on “lost,” sharing a private moment as Renzi built the emotion on the piano.

She admitted to being a “Rodgers and Hart gal,” but was right at home with Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s “It Might As Well Be Spring.

” Her melodic fluidity offered a notable melancholy to “Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year” by Frank Loesser for the film, Christmas Holiday and, after Renzi’s opening tease of “Blues in the Night,” she admitted that one of her favorite songs is “This Time the Dream’s on Me” (Arlen and Johnny Mercer). 

Scheckter remarked that she is singing songs by the best of the Great American Songbook writers—the Gershwins, Porter, Arlen, Harburg—but not singing their best known songs. While Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz’s touching “Haunted Heart” was recorded and loved by Jo Stafford and Suzanna McCorkle, with Scheckter’s long, secure lines, it felt freshly minted.
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With only Renzi’s passionate piano accompaniment, she delivered Dietz and Schwartz’s “I See Your Face Before Me” and jumped into Cole Porter’s playful “It’s Bad for Me.”  

Scheckter turns the less familiar into favorites, sharing universal stories sparked by her mellow, multi-faceted vocals with an edge of brass, the piano majesty of Renzi, and the jazzy wit of Leonhart, while Lesczak held it all together with a subtle beat.

Influenced by Bobby Short, the trio delivered “So Near and Yet So Far” with a Latin sway.
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After admitting to a crush on Anthony Perkins, she turned to another song favored by Short, Porter’s “Why Shouldn’t I?.” This was also recorded by Perkins, who had released three albums himself. Obviously he is better known for the horror epic that never dies, Psycho.

It is obvious to anyone listening to her musical taste and distinctive renditions that Bostonian Jane Scheckter should start spending more time in New York cabaret. As Porter put it succinctly, “You’re Sensational.”