A Custodian of the Great American Songbook, Jane Scheckter Quietly Commands Attention Even in the Most Crowded Rooms

Jane Scheckter‘I’ll Take Romance’Doxie MusicTo paraphrase one of her own songs, Jane Scheckter is “easy to find.” On most Monday nights one can generally hear the veteran singer at Birdland’s Cast Party, where she does something amazing most every week. A fixture for more than 20 years at the Jazz Corner of the World, this weekly event isn’t merely an “open mic” night but is truly a party and, at its best, a kind of riotous 21st century vaudeville. There are dozens of Broadway belters, nearly all of them shouting “Don’t Rain on My Parade” at the tops of their chops: Much as I love Jule Styne, this has long since replaced “New York, New York” as the most overdone number in the musical theater repertory. There are comedians, there are jugglers, there are tap dancers, and there is even one guy who comes out in pajamas and plays the trombone with his feet. Honestly. Yet Jane Scheckter just comes out and sings a simple song, and the whole room shuts up to listen. She holds our attention with just words and music, delivered in a knowingly understated fashion. She will usually give out with an uptempo number like “I’ll Take Romance,” a lightly-swinging waltz that provides the title for her new album, or such solid winners as “A Beautiful Friendship” or “You Better Love Me,” which are all heard in quick succession on the new album. Yet she’s also one of the very few performers whom the host and producer, Jim Caruso, will occasionally allow to sing a ballad, like Bart Howard’s “I’ll Be Easy To Find.” The result is that nearly every time I start to walk out of Birdland at the end of the evening, I find myself pondering, “So who was the best singer tonight — other than Jane Scheckter?”Ms. Scheckter releases a new album and does a solo show all too rarely, which is why when she was booked at Pangea on the last day of July, the room was packed with songbook and cabaret royalty, including Mr. Caruso. Also, it’s why her new release — only her fifth album — commands our attention.At times it seems like Jane Scheckter isn’t just a singer but a keeper of the keys, a custodian, as it were, of what we collectively refer to as the Great American Songbook. It’s both interesting and surprising that even though she grew up in an age when this music was all around her, the one who first attracted her attention and fueled her interest wasn’t someone as obvious as Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald. Rather, it was Bobby Short. As she told the tale at Pangea, she discovered the great singer-pianist on some AM frequency in 1957, at the age of 12, and he became what ornithologists would call her “sparkbird.”It seems appropriate that her first all-Jane show in a while should be a Bobby Short centennial tribute, with songs taken mostly from the six albums he cut for Atlantic Records between 1955 and 1960. The new album, “I’ll Take Romance,” also includes some Bobby Short specialties not in the Pangea show, among them another Bart Howard song, “You Are Not My First Love” and Cole Porter’s “After You.” On the album and during the show, Ms. Scheckter’s accompaniment consists of a superlative pianist, Tedd Firth, bassist Jay Leonhart, and drummer Peter Grant. The excellent Warren Vache also plays cornet and flugelhorn on several selections on the CD, among them another item on the Short list, “Moments Like This,” as well as “I’m Gonna Lock My Heart and Throw Away the Key,” from the Billie Holiday songbook. The album is also graced by a series of duos: She sings splendidly with Nicolas King on the Gershwins’ “Isn’t a Pity,” and there are several sumptuous voice-piano duets near the end, on Peggy Lee’s “Then Was Then” as well as on “Looking Back,” a new song adapted by Ms. Scheckter and lyricist Roger Schore from an older instrumental by composer Mickey Leonard. In fact, the album gets more intimate as it progresses, winding up not with a grand finale but with another sublimely understated duet with Mr. Firth, this time on “What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life,” which is clearly about those who are committed to something for the long haul. Considering that Ms. Scheckter turns 80 next year, and the song’s one surviving author, Alan Bergman, turns 100, and they’ve both been committed to this music for their entire lives, it seems like a perfect note to conclude on, or at least to put a period at the end of this chapter in her journey.There’s also a refreshing honesty to “I’ll Take Romance,” especially in an era when even those rare singers who can actually sing in tune still rely too much on autotune and other processing crutches. Ms. Scheckter not only sounds great, but she isn’t afraid to sound like herself, or to sound her age. This enhances the inherent wisdom of her songs and gives them a unique poignancy; when she tells us, “Then was then — and now is now,” you can’t help but feel that she knows of what she speaks.Which brings out an apparent contradiction: Singers who can affect you the way she can are increasingly rare, and yet, as Jane Scheckter herself tells us, she is easy to find.

A Custodian of the Great American Songbook, Jane Scheckter Quietly Commands Attention Even in the Most Crowded Rooms

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