“They have to own the words, get acquainted with the words, inhabit the words, and add character to the words. You have to be able to deliver the words in such a way, that you hit somebody with those words, so that they feel something really deeply,” says jazz vocalist and educator, Linda Ciofalo, who late this year released her second CD Sun Set. She was responding to my question concerning what she feels is important for her to impart to the voice students that she teaches.

In light of Ciofalo’s remarks, it is therefore easy to understand why she delivered such a powerful and emotive performance when she recorded the songs for Sun Set. She colors the song “The Last Day Of Summer,” with melancholy shades, paints a dreamy mural of subtle romanticism for “Love Is Stronger Far Than We,” and serves up a smoky cover of “Comes Love.”  Ciofalo is also able to draw upon a vast musical vocabulary that includes jazz, pop and classical influences, which in part explains how songs such as Madonna’s “La Isla Bonita,” two Beatles’ tunes, “I’ll Follow The Sun,” (Paul McCartney) and “Here Comes The Sun,” (George Harrison), found their way onto Sun Set, with new arrangements written by Ciofalo and her pianist John di Martino. The album also includes more traditional songs such as Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oh What A Beautiful Morning,” and the Richard Rodgers / Lorenz Hart tune, “You Took Advantage of Me.”

Sun Set is Ciofalo’s first project since her debut CD Take The High Road was released in 2000, when she was emerging from a career as a pop singer. She talks about that experience, “I did Take The High Road to get myself established as a jazz bandleader, and it (coincided) with my starting to head up a combo. It pretty well served as a demo for what I could do, so I could get gigs.”

“My second CD was (the culmination) of eight years of thinking about all the influences that I had experienced. (At one time), I had thought about doing different tribute albums to (a variety) of composers and lyricists. All of that went through my head,” says Ciofalo.

The New York City native who grew up in Brooklyn, and later in Queens, talks about her approach to familiar tunes, “I recorded “Oh What A Beautiful Morning,” in an unorthodox way. I did it in 5/4. People loved that I did that. From there I started thinking about how the day goes, from the beginning to sunset. I had done some of the songs over the years, but before I went into the studio, I got together with John di Martino, who helped me with the arranging. I had some of the ideas, and he helped put it on paper for me.”

One of the more daunting challenges was to create a new arrangement for “You Took Advantage of Me,” a song in which the primary instruments are Ciofalo’s voice and Matt Wilson’s drums. “I love the bare quality and the rawness of just the drums, without the voice, because both of those can be done without any amplification. Having just the drums and the voice goes back to the ancient times. You need two very musical people to pull that off, and I had a really good musical drummer. I would have him play, and then I would motion to the band, not to come in yet. I would continue with it (the song), ahead of the tune, up to the chorus, and then I would bring the band in. That was a little risky, but when we were doing it in the studio the guys were going, ‘Ya’ it sounds good. Be brave.’ While we were doing (the song) the engineer was up and dancing around (she laughs). I said maybe we should layer it and stick in a bass or something, but they said no it was cool, and to just leave it (the way it was). That was risky, because not too many people do (just) drums and voice,” notes Ciofalo.