KC Confidential.com

I may be as much as a year late getting around to the tasty CD “Smile” by local chanteuse Monique Danielle, but it still brought that eponymous expression to my face. Ms. Danielle and a collection of KC’s best sidemen (and women) wrap their lovin arms around some great standards on this locally-produced recording. Find it at your favorite Barnes & Noble or check it out at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/moniqued5.

Monique brings some great vibes to her performances here– sometimes sweet, sometimes sassy, sometimes even smokey, as she kindles a torch song with the best of em. Things get off to a pleasant start with the title track, featuring some lovely instrumental trade-offs by guitar hero (the real kind) Danny Embrey and Stan Kessler on that oh-so-mellow fluegelhorn of his.  Sub Rod Fleeman for Danny and add a bouncy bottom courtesy of Bob Bowman and you’ve got track two,  Monique’s take on the Vernon Duke standard “Taking a Chance on Love.”

I liked the big band charts on “What A Difference a Day Makes”– nice job by Adam Theis on those arrangements. And Ms. Danielle’s smokin’ “Summertime”  gets nice support from Rita Thies on flute, with Steve Rigazzi, Roger Wilder and Rod Lincoln laying the groundwork on bass, piano and drums, respectively (Roger plays alot of keyboard on this fine album).

Monique stretches her chops with some Portugese lyrics on “Insensatez”– I don’t think Karrin Allyson has anything to worry about here, but it’s nice to see Ms Danielle playing the field.  She keeps that Latin feeling going– and makes a damn fine recording, in the process– on the Bacharach-David hit “The Look of Love.” This may be one of my favorite arrangements of that tune. The album’s ever-present “Dan S” makes this one happen, adding some tasty flamenco guitar to the smoldering stew he’s arranged of the tune.

The hits just keep on coming. Monique really fires up the great Harry Warren saloon song “At Last” in a nice R Wilder arrangement. I prefer the swinging arrangement of “Nature Boy” to Monique’s ballad approach (you know, I’ve heard so many versions of this great song that I’m not sure what the tempo’s supposed to be in the first place). Stan K does a nice job arranging and soloing on “Angel Eyes.” And the whole thing winds up sweetly with just Roger and Monique on “A Child is Born”– a paean, perhaps, to Ms Danielle’s daughter, Maya Simone, to whom the album is dedicated.

You can catch Monique at Jardine’s Octoer 9. Here’s hoping that, with this release, Ms Danielle has indeed arrived to take her place alongside Ida, Angela, Megan, Nedra Dixon and those Wild Women who keep the distaff side of KC’s jazz scene humming.