Ann Hampton Callaway - Fever: A Peggy Lee Celebration!
Ann Hampton Callaway - Fever: A Peggy Lee Celebration!
(Palmetto Records, 2023)
Ann Hampton Callaway is a Renaissance woman with an embarrassment of talents: singer, pianist, composer, lyricist, arranger, actress, educator, TV host, and producer. She has recorded 16 record albums, including Fever: A Peggy Lee Celebration! Callaway has released similar homage recordings, including To Ella with Love (Shanachie, 1996) and From Sassy to Divine: The Sarah Vaughan Project (Shanachie, 2014). Callaway is a stunningly effective interpreter of other singers' songbooks.
Turning her attention to the music Peggy Lee made perfect evolutionary sense. Lee and Callaway share that effortless ability to make anything sound seamlessly each their own. Callaway is supported by a diamond quartet consisting of pianist Ted Rosenthal, bassist Martin Wind, drummer Tim Horner, and guitarist Bob Mann. John Pizzarelli joins Callaway on "I Love Being Here With You," turning in a sprite and inventive guitar solo. John Proulx was on hand for the lion's share of the arrangements he shared with Callaway, the remainder arranged by Horner and Mann.
Callaway's voice is another element that makes the Lee material so appropriate. Callaway's singing is rounded and softened by experience, training, and talent. The singer may most appropriately be compared to Mel Torme, with whom she shares a soft aura surrounding her voice, the same one that helped anoint Torme the "Velvet Fog." Callaway steams up "Fever" properly while adding the blues to "Black Coffee" and "Where Can I Go Without You." Callaway's inventive mash-up of "This Is A Very Special Day" with "It's A Good Day" condenses high-density genius into 2:38. This is an exceptional vocal recording in content, performance, and programming.