For those unaware, vocalist Paul Marinaro, dubbed as having “one of the most beautiful vocal instruments in the business today” by Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune, is a modern classic.

With Chicago as his home base, Paul has become one of the most in-demand and respected male vocalists and has “taken his place among the top five male jazz singers active today.” (Scott Yanow, LA Jazz Scene).

In 2013, Paul celebrated his widely acclaimed debut album Without a Song, a carefully crafted concept album stemming from and inspired by his father’s unfulfilled dream to have been a professional singer.

For this album, Paul incorporated the beginnings of his love affair with music, when at the age of five, he found his father’s homemade 78rpm acetate discs in the attic, heard him singing “That Old Black Magic”, and was mesmerized.

This scratchy recording of his father’s voice was Paul’s first musical inspiration…and it was restored and used to open his debut album 66 years later.

On his brand new album, Not Quite Yet (due out October 28th, 2022), the Buffalo native showcases an intimate, honest, and deeply compelling storytelling side of himself.

Thus, this multi-faceted collection is an invitation into the singer’s often playfully swinging and yet always graceful, exploration of timeless themes - life, love, the search for meaning and the longing for connection - as seen through the lens of the collective anxiety we all have felt these past few years.

1. Born To Be Blue
2. Someone The Light Up My Life
3. Make Me Rainbows
4. 5:15 The Angels Have Gone
5. Remind Me
6. No One Ever Tells You
7. Invitation
8. The Island
9. Taking A Chance On Love
10. On A Wonderful Day Like Today
11. That’s All
12. Searching (É Luxo Só)
13. I Remember
14. No Plan

This infectiously melodic new album opens on the emotive Mel Tormé cover Born To Be Blue and the beautiful, free flowing Antônio Carlos Jobim and Frank Sinatra composed Someone The Light Up My Life and they are followed by Paul upgrading the easy-listening Make Me Rainbows (John Williams / Alan and Marilyn Bergman) to bring forth a resonantly phrased work, the first of two David Bowie covers, this one a quite extraordinary reworking of 5:15 The Angels Have Gone (from Bowie’s 2002 Heathen album), and then comes an ultra smooth Remind Me (Jerome Kern / Dorothy Fields).

And in what is, in a way, a newly embroidered notation on Sinatra’s own legato-style of singing/phrasing, or perhaps more so, the lushly orchestrated, velvety tones that only Nat King Cole could usher, next up is Paul’s take on the Sinatra-sung No One Ever Tells You (Carroll Coates / Hub Atwood) which is backed by one of my own personal favorites, a simply divine rendition of Invitation (Bronisław Kaper / Paul Francis Webster, originally used in the 1950 film A Life of Her Own), which is itself followed by the romantic masterpiece The Island (Ivan Lins / Alan and Marilyn Bergman).

Up next is the Ella Fitzgerald-sung, yet exquisitely honored here by Paul, Taking A Chance On Love (Vernon Duke / John La Touche), the swinging, finger-snapping On A Wonderful Day Like Today (Anthony Newley / Leslie Bricusse), the album rounding out on what many consider part of the Great American Songbook, the dulcet, yet expressive That’s All (Bob Haynes / Alan Brandt), a reworked nod toward the Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd sung Searching (É Luxo Só), an impeccable telling of Stephen Sondheim’s I Remember (which actually comes from a made for 1966 TV film called Evening Primrose), coming to a lovely close on a daring choice, Bowie’s No Plan (taken from his posthumously album in 2017).

Featuring:
Mike Allemana, guitar
Tom Vaitsas, piano
John Tate, bass
George Fludas, drums
Marques Carroll, trumpet
Raphael Crawford, trombone
Chris Madsen, tenor sax
Rich Moore, alto sax, clarinet, flute
KAIA String Quartet
Allyssa Allgood, backup vocals
Gabriella Allemana, backup vocals

Official Website

Born To Be Blue - Paul Marinaro [Official Video]

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