New York City’s Linda Ciofalo released her album of Johnny Mercer songs, Dancing With Johnny earlier this summer; a self produced collection of songs on which she collaborated with John DiMartino to create the arrangements. The album opens with the Mercer / Victor Schertzinger song “Tangerine,” from the 1942 Paramount Picture’s film The Fleet’s In, starring Dorothy Lamour and William Holden.  Although, Cass Daley sang “Tangerine,” in the movie, it was the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, with singers Helen O’Connell and Bob Eberly who made the song popular as both a recording and in live performances. Having listened to the Dorsey / O’Connell / Eberly rendition, we much prefer the upbeat Latin rhythm arrangement that Ms. Ciofalo and Mr. DiMartino created and the upbeat vocal performance that Linda Ciofalo gives us. Eberly sounds like he is in mourning and Ms. O’Connell sings without passion, while Ms. Ciofalo gives us the impression she is happy to be alive and injects life into “Tangerine.” The original recording did not have scatting, something which Ciofalo and DiMartino added to their rendition of the song and it provides a nice segue to a terrific trumpet solo by Brian Lynch, which further enhances the Latin feel to the song.

Linda Ciofalo’s interpretation of “Talk To Me,” (music by Robert Emmett Dolan) is more subdued than the recording by Susannah McCorkle, the other rendition, with which this writer is most familiar, however, Ms. Ciofalo and Mr. DiMartino (piano), bassist John Benitez, drummer Ernesto Simpson and Paul Meyers (nylon string guitar) create a very elegant styling and romantic mood.

Johnny Mercer’s lyrics added to the beautiful composition “The Days of Wine And Roses,” by Henry Mancini, made for a timeless classic that has been sung by such icons as, Tony Bennett, Perry Como, Nancy Wilson and Andy Williams.  It would be difficult for any singer to compete with that class, and we have not even mentioned that Frank Sinatra also sang “The Days of Wine And Roses,” however Ms. Ciofalo serves up a commendable performance. We were not too keen on the musical accompaniment to her vocals, as they are too busy and they distract the listener from the vocals, in fact they do not so much accompany, as they compete with Ms. Ciofalo.

We suspect there will be those who will cry heresy, however, Ms. Ciofalo one ups Frank Sinatra on “That Old Black Magic,” and is sassier than Judy Garland, which also contributes to a better vocal rendition. Linda Ciofalo falls short of the stature of Ella Fitzgerald, but then who does not? We do however, have concerns about some of the musical choices, this time the hand played percussion of Little Johnny Rodriguez, who is a fabulous musician, however, the percussion is too prominent, as is Joel Frahm’s saxophone and in fact that is the case with Mr. Frahm’s horn for a few of the songs. If an album is to be about a vocalist singing great songs, then the listener wants to hear her vocals, without a lot of distractions and Linda Ciofalo does well with these songs and yet our focus is often shifted from her beautiful vocals to the musicians who compete with, rather than accompany her.

By contrast, I love the arrangement for the Johnny Mercer / Hoagy Carmichael song “Skylark,” which has a very elegant feel to it and Ms. Ciofalo puts in one of her best vocal performances on this album. We really fell in love with this song and Chieli Minucci’s elegant guitar, which is reminiscent of “Bucky” Pizzarelli. All the musicians; John DiMartino on piano, bassist John Benitez and drummer Ernesto Simpson were fabulous. There were no intrusions upon Linda Ciofalo’s vocals and yet their playing was prominent enough to be appreciated.  If you are picking a “best song,” from the album Dancing With Johnny this would be the one, at it tops any other renditions of this song, with which we are familiar, even that of the beautiful Gisele MacKenzie and later by her daughter Gigi.  

Choosing “Come Rain or Come Shine,” puts Linda Ciofalo in with an extraordinary group of singers who recorded this song, including; Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington and Barbra Streisand, so it is probably a good thing that Ms. Ciofalo and Mr. DiMartino opted for a much more upbeat arrangement than the languid version recorded by some of the aforementioned singers. This is a song on which the more prominent instrumentals work really well, including Joel Frahm’s saxophone.   Linda Ciofalo does equally well with the more elegant songs and the more spirited ones, such as her rendition of “Come Rain Or Come Shine,” a Harold Arlen collaboration with Johnny Mercer.