Come Rain or Shine

Album Review

This release is part of Spain's Fresh Sounds New Talent series. Georgina Weinstein has a cool, vibrato-less voice which is pleasant sounding enough. However, she needs to work on pitch, which wavers from time to time. On "My One and Only Love" she starts out off key and never recovers. On the plus side, she and the tenor of Chris Cheek are in absolute synch on the old warhorse "Lover Man." Another pleasing offering is Cole Porter's "What Is This Thing Called Love," where Weinstein sings the first chorus a capella and then segues into a stirring uptempo interplay with David Mengual's bass and Ben Waltzer's piano. Waltzer's playing is a pleasure — a combination Kenny Drew and Mal Waldron. His solo on "It Don't Mean a Thing" becomes tongue in cheek as he quotes "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise." This tune is the only one where Weinstein scats. Chris Cheek's hard bop sax is softened on such cuts as "You Stepped Out of a Dream" and "It Could Happen to You." With this kind of "new talent" backing her, a successful album would seem to have been assured. Weinstein does have enormous potential, but there needs to be improvement in vocal technique if the potential is to be realized.