Juliet Ewing’s “Simply ‘S Wonderful—The Magic Of Gershwin”

October 12, 2025

Regardless of the prevailing musical tastes, singers in each generation discover the remarkable, varied, romantic and passionate musical artistry of George and Ira Gershwin. What is often forgotten (or not realized) is that their output in its time was not in the jazz idiom. They inhabited the worlds of pop, Broadway, and even opera later in their careers. This affords a vocalist the perfect opportunity to explore other colors in the material if jazz is not their most comfortable arena. The great Rosemary Clooney encapsulated this idea perfectly when she responded to being called a “jazz singer” by saying, “I am not a jazz singer.  I am a singer who sings jazz songs.” 

There are lovely examples of this on Juliet Ewing’s new recording, Simply ‘S’ Wonderful—The Magic of Gershwin, especially in the ballad selections.  

It is on those that Ewing’s strengths shine brightest, from the insistent torchiness of “I’ve Got a Crush on You,”  to the timeless majesty and longing of “The Man I Love,” to the hauntingly reimagined “Summertime” which, for me, is the highlight of the recording. Her band, which includes Tedd Firth (arranger, piano), Ron Drotos (arranger, piano), David Finck (bass), Mark McLean (drums), provide enough jazz bona fides for any album. These guys eat, drink and breathe Gershwin. 

Apart from a glistening “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” (smartly paired with “Love is Here to Stay”) when the tempo picks up, so do my reservations. As I have brought up in reviews of shows and albums by other perfectly fine pop vocalists unable to resist the opportunity to be a “real jazz singer”–whether it suits them or not—many singers just don’t “hit the pocket” when it comes to jazz. It undermines their obvious talent by attempting to perform in a musical language that is not the most freeing or natural.  This often reveals itself in the scat sections like the ones to which Ewing returns too often. The scat falls into two categories—first, a lot of silly, made-up syllables far from the traditional jazz lexicon, strung together and speedily sung, sounding more learned than improvised; and second, classical-lite, octave-spanning runs of notes in a style perfected by Cleo Laine and Maureen McGovern, and rarely matched since then.  “A Foggy Day” starts out beautifully capturing its romantic innocence, but by the end the style and control is abandoned as she bends and curves her vocals around the changes, rather than concentrating on the story or the actual melody. 

The other major reservation is perhaps even more problematic because it could have been more easily addressed. There is a sloppy delivery of some of the lyrics through mispronunciation or misplaced emphasis. What might have been a fun number, “Slap That Bass” stumbles as each time Ewing gets to Ira Gershwin’s onomatopoeic lyric for the sound of a strumming bass string, Ewing delivered it squarely as the word “zoom” as if a race car is flying by, instead of “zum” where she would be mimicking the instrument’s actual sound. And in “Naughty Baby,” she ignores the evocative, saucy, steamy side of the word “naughty” and emphasizes the second word whenever it is used, e.g., “naughty baby” or “naughty one” and along the way passes up lots of innuendo and double entendre possibilities.  Someone connected with the project should have caught these. 

If I am going a bit deeper into the negatives than I might otherwise do, it is because they really affected my enjoyment of the many things I really liked about Juliet Ewing, the band, and Simply ‘S Wonderful—The Magic of Gershwin. 

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Juliet Ewing’s Simply ‘S’ Wonderful—The Magic of Gershwin produced by Tedd Firth on the HoneyDiva Music/Lexicon Classics label.

 

About the Author

Gerry Geddes, critic for BistroAwards.com, is an award-winning director, writer, teacher, performer, lyricist, and a contributor to the podcast Troubadours and Raconteurs. He conceived and directed the acclaimed musical revues Monday in the Dark with George (Bistro and MAC Award winner), Put on Your Saturday Suit—Words & Music by Jimmy Webb, and Gerry Geddes & Company (in its five-year residency at Pangea). He has directed singers André De Shields, Darius de Haas, Helen Baldassare, and Lisa Viggiano. He has been active in the cabaret world for over five decades and has produced numerous CDs; his lyrics have been performed and recorded here and in Europe. Gerry’s workshop, The Art of Vocal Performance, is regularly offered to singers of all levels. His memoir of life in NYC, Didn’t I Ever Tell You This?, was recently published and is available at barnesandnoble.com. He is currently at work on his first novel.