Yes, I admit it. I’m a sucker for a lush string section and a great singer. And then it really doesn’t matter if he or she sings only cover versions. Plus it’s good to hear Naima Shamborguer on a new self-released record after she impressed me with A Blossom Sings.
“From My Heart To Yours is my dream project. It is a CD of ballads with different tempos,” Naima told me in her jazz-not-jazz interview last year. And what a marvelous dream Naima must have had.
From My Heart To Yours offers twelve heartfelt interpretation of standards and one original composition. Again, Naima succeeds in making the songs her own.
The album starts with a moving rendition of Smile with a string laden instrumentation, a song written by Charlie Chaplin. The instrumental version originally appeared in the soundtrack of Modern Times in 1936. You may remember the final scene of this movie when Charlie and the gamine (his wife Paulette Goddard by the way) walk down the road to a new life. When they get up off the grass strip, he pauses and points to the corners of his mouth, indicating that she should smile. And listening to her singing and Dwight Adams’ muted trumpet it sounds like Naima wants to recapture this moment with her being Chaplin and the trumpet being the gamine.
Other highlights include Naima’s collaboration with George Benson, the bluesy Fuchsia Mood (with music by George, who also plays saxophone on this track, and lyrics by Naima) and a swinging version of If You Could See Me Now (made famous by Sarah Vaughn).
Sure Thing, a Gershwin/Kern song that first appeared in the movie Cover Girl with Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly, gets redone as showstopping ballad with great strings and a fine bass solo by Marion Hayden. I’ll Be Seeing You is a duet with veteran singer Don Revels (of Five Pearls and Society Train fame) and it features a nice bass clarinet solo by Wendell Harrison.
Legrande’s What Are You doing For The Rest Of Your Life and Cole Porter’s In The Still Of The Night have a welcome Latin flavour thanks to Mahindi Masi’s percussion.
And the lesson learned for me with this album is, that I really can’t get warm with Stephen Sondheim’s songs. Don’t ask me why, Naima does a great job on Send In The Clowns, the instrumentation of strings and harp is fine, but I still can’t get into this song.
To sum it up From My Heart To Yours is a great, independently released jazz album by a singer who (hopefully) won’t be Detroit’s best kept secret any longer.

Tracklisting of From My Heart To Yours: 1. Smile/ 2. What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life/ 3. Here’s To Life/ 4. Fuchsia Mood/ 5. Send In The Clowns/ 6. Nearness Of You/ 7. When October Goes/ 8. If You Could See Me Now/ 9. Lush Life/ 10. Sure Thing/ 11. I’ll Be Seeing you/ 12. In The Still Of The Night | released 2006 Shambones Music

For more infos visit cdbaby.com and naima.mybesthost.com and read my interview with Naima Shamborguer.

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