JONATHAN KARRANT: Full Circle: To Diane Schuur with Love

Diane Schuur, a Baby Boomer born after the heyday of the Great American Songbook, carried on the tradition of singing the classics from generations before. While rockers, from Ringo Starr and Rod Stewart to Carly Simon and even (gasp!) Bob Dylan, sought to establish—and sometimes successfully established—their crooner bona fides by recording an album or two of standards, Schuur remained the real deal. She performed with such jazz giants as Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz; and her recordings of Tin Pan Alley, Broadway showtunes, and jazz standards distinguished Schuur as one of the best singers of the old standards for this generation.

With his latest CD release, Full Circle: To Diane Schuur With Love, Jonathan Karrant pays tribute to Schuur. The two have been friends for many years, and Schuur mentored Karrant as he established his career as a singer. The release of Full Circle comes as Schuur is retiring from touring and live performance.

On this collection, Karrant sings nine classic tunes, all of which Schuur covered throughout her career, from 1934’s “What a Difference a Day Makes” to Billy Joel’s ode to the grit and grime of his Big Apple hometown “New York State of Mind.” The highlight of this collection is a playful duet from Schuur and Karrant on “Caught a Touch of Your Love.” Schuur adds a coda to the collection, singing a heartbreaking rendition of “I’ll Be seeing You.”

Karrant is a singer in the mold of Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. He’s done his homework as a jazz singer. He’s well informed on tone, diction, and the ever important phrasing to keep a song moving. He also brings to the table is a little touch of soul, a quiet brassiness that refreshes these old standards.

Karrant employed bassist Alex Frank, drummer Kevin Kanner, pianist Tamir Hendelman, and guitarist Graham Dechter for this recording. The band was also joined by Joe Bagg on organ, Kye Palmer on trumpet, and Ricky Woodard on Sax. The arrangements are tops, and band swings. All the recording studio technical stuff, from microphone placement to how the knobs in the control room were set, is pretty much flawless. Additionally, whoever tuned the piano is a master. It’s one of the most well tuned pianos on any recording I’ve heard recently. Two thumbs up for Jonathan Karrant’s Full Circle!