June Bisantz It’s Always You
Featured on Spring 2016 JAZZIZ On Disc (Disc One)
Chet Baker’s intimate vocals have influenced countless jazz artists, June Bisantz among them. In fact, the Connecticut-based singer follows Let’s Fall in Love, her 2006 Chet Baker tribute album, with the self-released It’s Always You: June Bisantz Sings Chet Baker Vol. 2. Bisantz keeps the proceedings appropriately hushed, her singing — which, many have noted, resembles that of Phoebe Snow — sensitively shaded by pianist Alex Nakhimovsky, guitarist Norman Johnson, bassist Matt Dwonszyk and drummer Ben Belillo. The vocalist delivers shivers with an intonation that bears the glint of moonlit melancholy but hardly lacks for warmth — particularly when she’s accompanied by just Nakhimovsky and Johnson, or solely by the guitarist, or when she goes it alone, as she does on an a cappella read of “Spring Is Here.” Bisantz’s horn-like phrasing floats atop the quartet’s sterling accompaniment on “It’s Always You,” our selection. The track also features the Baker-like trumpet of Gabor Viragh and reminds listeners that the tributee was also a distinctively soulful horn player.