Tina May - Café Paranoia

The Guardian 80

(33Jazz)

Tina May can grasp the essence of a style and make it her own more quickly and thoroughly than any other singer I can think of. This time she takes some songs written by the late Mark Murphy, joins Murphy’s collaborator, Andy Lutter, in writing a few more, and the two sets complement one another beautifully. Together they brew a faint but distinct atmosphere of the early 1960s, when Murphy’s lyrics prompted Liza Minnelli to remark: “There’s a party going on in Mark’s head and I want to go to it.” And Tina May suggests the hip, knowing tones of Annie Ross, the period’s diva, to perfection.