November 1999

Bobby Short
You're the Top: Love Songs of Cole Porter
Telarc

By Jack Sohmer

This collection of 15 classic show tunes gets typically elegant treatment from singer/pianist Short, perhaps the most authentic interpreter of Porter material extant. The epitome of sophisticated wit and the slightly naughty double entendre, Short, away from his usual encampment at New York's Cafe Carlyle, is here backed by a 14-piece studio band under the direction of tenorman Loren Schoenberg, who, along with Short, trumpeter John Eckert, guitarist Howard Alden, and bassist Frank Tate, contributes what few jazz solos there are. The stodgy two-beat feel of the society-tinged rhythm section, however, is more reminiscent of Lester Lanin than Lester Young, one of Schoenberg's major influences.