SHAZAM

At the tender age of 20, New York vocalist Jane Monheit was the first runner-up in the 1998 Thelonious Monk Institute vocal competition, winning a $10,000 scholarship to further her musical education. Judges couldn't exactly place her sound, which blended natural elegance with a potent yet impressively controlled presentation, and by 2000 Monheit had joined Diana Krall as one of the highest-touted female talents in jazz. That May she signed to N-Coded and released her debut, Never Never Land. Angelic and conservative, Monheit's structured set of ten popular standards illustrated her still-emerging vocal talents. Come Dream with Me arrived in 2001; it consisted of several standards as well as a few lesser-known jazz compositions. The album wasn't as widely praised as her debut, but her growth as a performer was still evident. Since that time she has released several albums, including In the Sun in 2002, Taking a Chance on Love in 2004, the holiday-themed Season in 2005, and Surrender in 2007. In 2009, Monheit released the album The Lovers, The Dreamers and Me which featured her version of the classic Muppets ballad "The Rainbow Connection." A year later, Monheit returned, this time on Emarcy, with Home. In 2013, she released her ninth studio album, the Gil Goldstein-produced Heart of the Matter. ~ MacKenzie Wilson, Rovi