Until

I've heard some jazz fans of a certain age say that the best days of the music they love are far behind them. "When I want to hear real _______, I just put on my [insert twentieth-century date] records by [dead people]. Nobody's playing / singing like that now." And an even more widely stated assertion is, "Nobody's making great CDs now because no one buys CDs anymore."

With her new CD, the remarkable singer Karen Marguth proves that both these positions are, at best, uninformed. Something else needs to be said. More than male tenor players, female singers are often put forth as edible product. You know the syndrome: it stares out of CD covers, promotional photographs and videos. It makes me sigh, because I never heard cleavage sing a song. This isn't to insult Karen's appearance — certainly not — but she is an artist with more to offer than a pretty surface. Her music has depth and surprise.

First you hear her distinctively soulful voice, her clear diction, her individualistic phrasing. Quickly the listener warms to her mix of intensity and lightness, her passion and wit. But this disc is not stuck in 1939. Karen roves happily through songs by Sting, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Mancini, a children's song sung in Spanish. And she brings to the varied material her own generous personality — warmth in every phrase — and each song is awarded its own shape, its own flavors.

And she meshes so well with a remarkable assortment of supportive players in sessions recorded over a decade: David Aus, John R. Burr, piano; Matt Finders, Richard Giddens, Pat Olvera, Dan Feiszli, string bass; Brian Hamada, Nathan Guzman, Kelly Zaban Fasman, drums; Gilbert Castellanos, trumpet; Mike Taylor, guitar; Eva Scow, mandolin; George Ramirez, percussion; Omar Ledezma, Jr., percussion and vocals; Erik Jekabson: trumpet.

I've chosen to write less and let you hear more of Karen. It's only right. This is music for grownups, people who value honest emotional communication by a storyteller who doesn't hide her stories, who isn't afraid of swinging. Her music will stay in your memory; her art will enhance your days and nights.