Album Notes

Sally Mayes – Valentine

(Various) (RNBW029)

For the first time in her recording career Sally Mayes turns her attention to a very special group of standards and comes up with a stylish and beautiful jazz-tinged album. It’s Sally like you’ve never heard her before – and Sally at her best. Her own personal valentine to the great American songbook. Songs from old masters Rodgers and Hart, Cy Coleman, James Van Huesen, Harry Warren, Duke Ellington, side comfortably beside those of newer composers Kenny Rankin, Stanley Turrentine and Amanda McBroom. Hear Sally’s unique styling as she wraps her silky voice around “I Got It Bad”, “Here’s That Rainy Day”, and “Angel Eyes.” The medley of “The Best Is Yet To Come” and “You Fascinate Me So” works brilliantly, as does the duet of “My Funny Valentine” performed with guest artist Billy Stritch and recorded here for the first time. Has there ever been a better version of “The More I See You” which in Sally’s hands becomes a beautiful, wistful, lullaby. With brilliant arrangements and piano by the talented Jeff Klitz, this is a unique album of songs performed with style, honesty and love.

“a singer of incandescent ebullience, deliciously saucy”
New York Times

“the kind of rich theatrical voice that elevates a show tune”
People Magazine

“Sally Mayes renders songs as richly nuanced as one-act plays”
Time Magazine