Every once in a while there comes along a songstress who just knows how to sing a song in a way that you just sit there and instantly believe, what she's singing and you don't doubt that this singer has experienced all the trouble she sings about.
Claudette Stone is just one of these songstresses. A great deal of this credibility is certainly based on the fact that Claudette isn't your average promising new kid on the block. In fact she may be a little too old for today's youth-orientated music market to get signed by a major label, but that's the loss of the mainstream, that - unfortunately - may never hear of Claudette, not our loss.
Most of the songs on How Do You Keep The Music Playing are more or less well-known jazz standards with I Really Care About You being the sole original composition by Claudette herself. And since her own contribution really fits perfectly into the mood she creates here with the chosen songs, one wonders why she hasn't written more songs to show to a greater extent that she's not only a brilliant singer but can also write good songs. Like any real good singer should do, Claudette makes each cover version her own, so you don't say 'ah, I know this one from Billie, Ella or Sarah'.
The overall feeling of this album is a very pleasant journey into jazz music's heyday when every band has its 'Red Hot Mama' even though Claudette sings songs that were written between 1928 and 1982. Just listen to Claudette's wonderful renditions of Gershwin's The Man I Love, which starts like a ballad and then turns into a fine swinging tune that gives the song a new direction. Or take Claudette's version of Washington's/Young's Stella By Starlight...literally, I could name any song here, whether it's the old chestnut When I Fall In Love, Lullaby Of Birdland (with some nice vibes played by Tom Shove), Bewitched or the swing classic per se It Don't Mean A Thing or any other of the 15 songs here.
Of course this CD wouldn't be so good if Claudette wasn't accompanied by some equally good musicans who know how to play their instruments. The music is played by Dick Johnson's Mardi Gras Band with Dick Johnson on trumpet, Brad Hammett (Trombone), Charlie Robinson (guitar), Howard Dudune (tenor saxophone), Tom Shove (piano), Mickey Bennett (bass) and Ron Jones (drums). And the band's motto 'Quality and Entertainment' is well achieved on this fine album.
If you're a fan of classic vocal jazz sung by a woman, who really knows how to handle a tune, then you should get Claudette Stone's How You Keep The Music Playing.

(for more information and sound samples visit mardigrasband.com and cdbaby.com)