Anne Phillips - Anne Phillips Live At The Jazz Bakery (2019)

Having made a promising debut album “Born to Be Blue” in 1959, Anne Phillips didn’t record a follow-up, ”Gonna Lay My Heart On The Line” until 2000 – possibly a record-setting gap, Yet she hasn’t exactly been asleep: she’s been singing behind the scenes in the commercial music industry, writing songs for shows and her filing cabinet. She emerged at the Jazz Bakery on Monday night to answer the question: Where has this captivating performer been all our lives?

She did so in a most engaging way, linking her songs with a running, loosely chronological narrative of her career, more a one woman show than your typical jazz club gig. Her voice is in great shape, agile enough to sail through the vocal obstacle course of some of her lyrics. And she couldn’t have picked more expert back-up help – husband Bob kindred blowing Getz-like obligatos informed with intimacy on tenor sax, Roger Kellaway’s fancy, witty, understated piano lines, and Chuck Berghoffer’s spare, anchorlike bass.

It was fascinating to hear the older, wiser, Anne Phillips apply her freer, more sophisticated, jazzier, current style to standards from her first album and her own songs.