Ian Shaw is an original. Born in North Wales, Shaw studied the trumpet and piano in London and led the soul/rock group Brave New World. It was with this outfit that Shaw first played at Ronnie Scott's, a major English jazz club. Scott recognized the singer's talent and worked with him, booking him into the club until Shaw had developed a style and repertoire. He recorded his first album, Ghostsongs live at Ronnie Scott's; it was well received. In 1999 he collaborated with pianist Cedar Walton on In a New York Minute, a recording that helped him successfully make the leap into the American jazz scene, with the Hollywood Reporter declaring: "If Ian Shaw had been around 40 years ago, he would have been maybe bigger than Mel Torme or Betty Carter."

That is high praise indeed, but certainly not without merit. Shaw not only has a way with a song, he is very careful about choosing his repertoire to begin with. The tracks on Soho Stories run the gamut from the lesser-known backroads of Tin Pan Alley ("Dearly Beloved", "How Little We Know"), the new (Sue Hawker and Rob Coral's "A Little Piece of Heaven"), and the songs from outside the jazz ouvre that demand a careful reading (Janis Ian's "Ruby" and Tom Waits' "Rainbow Sleeves"). The result is an album of music that feels familiar but which we can't let slip into the background because we don't quite know the words or tune. The kickoff, "Comes Love" is ably delivered at a much jauntier pace than that used by Joni Mitchell on her Both Sides Now recording of standards. Mitchell is Ian Shaw's favorite singer-songwriter, and there are times when you can hear Shaw employ some of the slightly off-kilter not-quite-regular-jazz-phrasing used by Mitchell. Occaisionally that gets in the way of a particular song, but overall Shaw knows when to experiment and when to lay back. James Pearson lets loose with a nice modal piano solo statement before Eric Alexander lends his warm tenor sound to the cause. Shaw's supporting cast, including Alexander, Pearson, Cedar Walton, Lew Woloff, and Joe Beck, definitely help him put these songs across with tightly constructed arrangements and concise solo work throughout.

Other standouts are the aformentioned "Ruby" arranged to great effect by Shaw himself, "Dearly Beloved" taken at breakneck speed and featuring Alexander and Soloff on solos, the Tadd Dameron composition "If You Could See Me Now", and the saloon song "I Keep Going Back to Joe's". The album closes poignantly on the Tom Waits composition "Rainbow Sleeves", a fitting closer to this album of songs that speaks to the emotions and experiences of everyday people: "You used to dream yourself away each night to places you've never been/on wings made of wishes you whispered to yourself/Back when every night the moon and you/would sweep away to places that you knew you'd never get the blues."

Ian Shaw's Soho is a place where dreams may not always come true, but when they don't there's always a good song to be had from the experience. I'm looking forward to his next release.