Lovers of jazz vocalists and classic songbook material mixed with some contemporary numbers would do well to add both of these outstanding CDs to their collections. Because whether it's sacred or profane, love and desire are, as the songwriter said, here to stay.

Talented female jazz vocalists are everywhere these days, which is wonderful for listeners who enjoy them, but must be unbelievably frustrating for the artists. After all, there is only so much time and so many different artists that the typical listener will care to keep up with, so the question becomes how to stand out amongst the many talented vocalists out there today? When one has honed one’s craft, become the best interpreter of the chosen songs as one can be, found a group of sympathetic musicians to perform with, come up with interesting arrangements that both push the boundaries of the chosen material and still render it recognizable, what else is there?

Increasingly the answer has been to present a grouping of songs around a theme or to find some way to create a mood that extends throughout the varied songs of a recorded program. Cassandra Wilson has often found ways to create a mood throughout an album even thought the songs vary widely in form and temperament, while other artists rely on a particular style (blues, for example) or topic that runs through all the songs in a particular collection. It’s no longer enough to use a unifying ‘songbook’ theme based around one composer, as was often done by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Sara Vaughn.

Tierney Sutton has proven incredibly adept at finding suitable themes for her recordings and making them work for collections of very disparate songs. Even when the topic is based on a single composer or performer, as on Dancing In the Dark, her tribute to Frank Sinatra, she manages to put a new spin on it. The Sinatra album, for example, focused on early Sinatra songs that are often overlooked by a generation that mostly remembers Sinatra from the 1970s on. The follow-up, On the Other Side, looked at the dark side of songs about happiness. After a snappy live set, Sutton returns with her latest album Desire. The album is ostensibly about greed, but the brand of greed spotlighted on many of the numbers that Sutton and her band have chosen is lust, pure and simple. Even the album cover is evocative. Sutton, her long blond tresses and face highlighted like an old Hollywood glamour photo, stares longingly at something or someone beyond the frame. At the same time that she desires something she is herself an object of desire to the observer.

The song selection reportedly began with the two Cole Porter numbers included here, ‘My Heart Belongs to Daddy’ and ‘It’s Alright With Me.’ Certainly Porter was no stranger to the idea of love, lust, and desire being mercurial and buffeted by the whims of a free market culture. ‘My Heart Belongs To Daddy’ sails breezily along on the current of Ray Brinker’s drums and Christian Jacobs’ brisk piano, but the way Tierney toys with the lyrics and musical phrases tells the listener everything they need to know about the song’s singer. ‘It’s Alright With Me’ is taken at a frenetic pace, breaking into an easy swing at about a minute and a half, when Tierney’s temptress vocals give way to a powerful, muscular solo by Jacobs.

“Fever” is a slow burn number, beginning only with bass and vocals, with drums eventually laying down a slow rock/boogaloo beat. ‘Cry Me a River’ features perhaps the most arresting arrangement, with Brinker outlining the rhythm rather than defining it, while Jacobs’ piano often drifts along seemingly out of time completely. All of the arrangements on the disc allow the listener to hear the song from a different perspective than usual, yet none are gimmicky or outlandish. Sutton’s working group is a modicum of taste, remaining solidly within the mainstream jazz tradition yet finding new ways of playing well-worn songs. Tierney is, as always, more than up to the task of reinterpreting these famous songs, but she never sings more notes where less will achieve the same effect. Her phrasing is impeccable, and her understanding of the songs she interprets is unquestionable. Sutton is one of the best vocal interpreters performing and recording today, and she is at the peak of her creative powers, making Desire another successful venture for her and her band.

Perhaps the most telling juxtaposition on the album is presented by the last two tracks. ‘Whatever Lola Wants’ is sensuous and full of serpentine twists and turns. There is no question about Sutton’s motives or desires as she inhabits the mind of the femme fatale namesake of the song. Sutton refers to this performance as the ‘dark heart of the album,’ and it certainly does present one of the darkest visions here. After Sutton’s haunting vocal fades away, the spoken word intro to ‘Skylark’ arrives like a breath of fresh air. Like the spoken introduction to the album’s opener (‘It’s Only a Paper Moon’) the words here come from the sacred book of the B’hai faith. The yearning Johnny Mercer/Hoagy Charmichael melody with its beautiful lyrics provide a welcome counterpoint to the lust for both physical and material experience heard on the rest of the album.

As usual, Tierney Sutton has found a way to frame the songs she’s selected for Desire with an overarching theme that provides added context and depth for the listener, and the stunning arrangements are beautifully executed by the singer and her top-notch band.

Ann Hampton Callaway also explores many of the twists and turns of romance on her latest release, At Last, but Callaway is looking at more straightforward expressions of feeling from the heart than the lusty relationships Sutton used to illustrate her theme. Interestingly, Callaway also begins with a Cole Porter song, ‘What Is This Thing Called Love?’ It’s Porter in a less cynical, more simply confused mode, and provides a nice segue into that classic song of love as ailment ‘Comes Love.’ While Callaway works primarily with a base piano trio backing group just as Sutton does, she adds some variations in color via additional instruments on some tracks. Here she employs trombonist Wycliffe Gordon and guitarist Rodney Jones to punch up the arrangement.

It’s interesting that while Sutton provides an overt philosophical template over her theme that informs and illuminates her interpretations of her chosen songs, Callaway’s album conveys the very deeply felt romance that eludes the inhabitants of the world that Sutton critiques. That’s reflected in the arrangements as well; Callaway’s tend toward more traditional jazz standards arrangements (even on more contemporary numbers. The most telling track is Callaway’s original “Save a Place for Me” which is presented as a traditional bossa nova number, complete with guitar and additional percussion (courtesy of Enedin Rivera). It shows that Callaway’s heart resides in the darkened atmosphere of the club and the cabaret.
Callaway makes some cagey song choices. A few are surprising because of the frequency with which they’ve been interpreted by other singers through the years. But Callaway confidently puts her own stamp on them. “Over the Rainbow” is a sumptuous and deeply felt performance that will make listeners forget about comparisons, so swept up will they be in the current that Callaway creates. Marvin Stamm’s flugelhorn solo adds a tempered melancholy to the song. More contemporary material is handled well, though at first listen I found it hard to get the swinging, bluesy version of Joni Mitchell’s rollicking expatriate romance “Carey.” But the doowop quality of bassist Jay Leonhart’s background vocal that approximates a vocal bassline and Jones’ Wes Montgomery-esque guitar figures reveal an arrangement that is right in tune with Mitchell’s lyrics. Stevie Nicks’ gorgeous ‘Landslide’ is given a straightforward ballad reading, with Mads Tolling’s violin work providing a hint of country without belaboring the point.

The singer and her band have a jaunty go at Chick Corea’s classic ‘Spain’ with Al Jarreau lyrics, with Ted Rosenthal playing an energetic piano solo and Callaway demonstrating her ability to scat with taste. “Lazy Afternoon” is well handled, complete with some background nature sounds, though it is not my favorite rendition of this dreamy song. But that’s a small quibble in a delightful hour-long program of music.

And how does Callaway fare on the title track? She sings the entire minute long intro, not generally heard, before heading into the familiar melody. Rodney Jones provides some tasty, bluesy guitar fills, and Callaway’s voice is big and robust, like a homemade pasta sauce. The song provides Callaway with an opportunity to really belt it out, and she certainly can. That she reserves it only for the biggest moments of the album’s title track demonstrates the maturity and talent that this singer brings to her craft.

Lovers of jazz vocalists and classic songbook material mixed with some contemporary numbers would do well to add both of these outstanding CDs to their collections. Because whether it's sacred or profane, love and desire are, as the songwriter said, here to stay.