Diane Marino- Romance In The Dark
(M&M Records, 2024)
Vocalist/pianist Diane Marino’s Romance In The Dark is an “adult contemporary jazz” project. Categorizing may be vulgar, but it is also descriptive. Approaching this from a slightly different direction, the phrase “adult contemporary jazz” contains more information than it lets on. The key operative here is “adult.” What Marino does is make grown-up music for grown-ups. This is not the music introducing some dewy-eyed twenty-year-old dipping their precious toes into the Great American Songbook. This is Diane Marino, singer/pianist, who has produced a recording every two years for the past twenty. On Romance In The Dark, Marino puts a strategically sexy spin on some of the lesser known repertoire deserving of more attention. reflects
Born in Manhattan, Marino started her early piano training in classical studies and jazz improvisation from the age of 10. She attended and matriculated from NYC’S "‘Famed’ High School for the Performing Arts. Marino received her B.M. degree from Mannes College of Music in Manhattan piano performance, where she studied piano with world-renowned concert pianist Murray Perahia. She is a master of a spectrum of music: the Great American Songbook, traditional and Latin jazz, and Bossa Nova. Those are impressive bona fides.
Marino introduces Romance In The Dark with Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s “Out Of This World,” a layer reading with both acoustic and electric piano and strings. Spacially impressive, the piece features Don Aliquo contributing a slippery soprano sax solo as an adjunct to Marino’s tender sentiment. The singer purrs “You Don’t Know What Is,” potently recalling Billie Holiday’s treatment on Lady In Satin (Columbia, 1958) without Marino losing any of her identity. He solo is robust, almost angry, reacting to the lyric, while Rusty Jessup’s tenor saxophone soothes the broken heart in the making. “So In Love” reflects an anxious texture, Marino expecting the listener’s attention as she sings, “In love with my joy delirious / when I knew you could care.”
Marino remains a solid vocal force in a variety of musical genres. Romance In The Dark is a timely release by a timeless voice.