Faces of Love

In youth-driven idioms like alternative rock, dance-pop, and hip-hop, you dont find a lot of artists making their recording debuts at 45. But jazz is a different ball game. Jazz audiences tend to be more accepting of late bloomers because they realize that artists need to improve and develop with time; if an artist doesnt have a lot to say at 20 or 25, he/she might have plenty to say at 40, 45, or 50. In terms of recording, Marcelle Gauvin is one of jazzs late bloomers; the Massachusetts vocalist was 45 when she recorded her first album as a leader, Faces of Love. This competent, if unremarkable, debut shows Gauvin to be a likable singer with a charming, vulnerable quality to her voice. The singer picks a few warhorses that have been done to death over the years; do listeners really need to hear yet another conventional reading of "Love for Sale" or "Skylark"? But to her credit, she doesnt inundate us with songs that have been recorded hundreds of times, and she also embraces material that ranges from Heitor Villa-Lobos "Eu Te Amo" (which finds her singing in Portuguese) to Ella Fitzgeralds "Rough Ridin." And she certainly deserves applause for successfully tackling Stephen Sondheims "Not While Im Around"; many jazz vocalists steer clear of Sondheims challenging compositions, but Gauvin, much to her credit, has enough vision to give "Not While Im Around" a lightly Brazilian makeover. You wont find Faces of Love breathtaking, but its respectable and lets us know that Gauvin is well worth keeping an eye on. ~ Alex Henderson