Diana Panton: “Blue” (2022) CD Review

In 2009, jazz vocalist Diana Panton released Pink, an album of songs related to that color and dealing with new love. Five years later she released Red, also featuring songs dealing with love, but this time a deeper sort of love. That album won her a Juno award for Vocal Jazz Album Of The Year. Now she completes her trilogy with Blue, which features songs of heartbreak and the loss of love. Is that the inevitable end to every love story? I refuse to believe so. But the music on this disc is excellent. The songs chosen for this album are covers, including songs by Rodgers and Hart, Van Heusen and Cahn, and Frank Loesser. Joining her on this release are Phil Dwyer on saxophone, Reg Schwager on guitar, Don Thompson on piano and organ, Jim Vivian on bass, Jeremy Bell on violin, Jerzy Kaplanek on violin, Katie Schlaikjer on cello, and Christine Vlajk on viola. The disc contains more than an hour of music.

The album opens with a medley of “Where Do You Start?” and “Once Upon A Time.” Diana Panton delivers the first several lines of “Where Do You Start?” a cappella, showing a vulnerable side and highlighting this as a moment of solitude. And she gives a beautiful vocal performance. Soon she is joined by Don Thompson on piano. “Which books are yours?/Which tapes and dreams belong to you/And which are mine?” This is a song about the difficult and depressing endeavor of untangling a relationship, and realizing just how much will have to change. “So many habits that we’ll have to break/And yesterdays we’ll have to take apart.” Yet there is still some remaining hope, heard in lines like “and you’ll be there again” and “I’ll find myself in love again,” and she indicates a tiny part of her will stay in love with that person. Diana Panton then moves into “Once Upon A Time,” describing the beginning of the relationship “many moons ago,” and we understand that not only the beginning, but the entire relationship is in the past. She reflects fondly upon those times in this song, not giving in to despair, until possibly that sad final line, “Once upon a time never comes again.” A different conclusion than that of “Where Do You Start?”

The string quartet then joins her for a beautiful rendition of The Beatles’ “Yesterday” (supposedly the most recorded song of all time), a good choice to follow that medley because of the line “And yesterdays we’ll have to take apart” in “Where Do You Start?” This version features some pretty work on acoustic guitar, as well as a nice lead on piano. This song, like the two of the medley, looks backward to a better time. “Now I long for yesterday” is such a wonderfully sad line, and Diana Panton does such a great job with it. She is in no hurry here, not wishing to leave the past. Then the saxophone helps set the mood for “Without Your Love” before Diana Panton’s voice comes in. Interestingly, this song has a more cheerful sound, particularly that guitar work, even as she sings “The sun above/Will never shine at my door/My life holds nothing in store/Without your love.” This one has a smoother feel, so that we get the sense she’ll be all right. Then from Stephen Sondheim, she chooses “Losing My Mind,” a song written for the 1971 musical Follies. This one also features some beautiful work from the string section, and some pretty work on piano. In the track’s second half, I am drawn to the bass, perhaps because it works in contrast to the ethereal sound of the vocals and strings, keeping things more grounded. “You said you loved me/Or were you just being kind/Or am I losing my mind?”

The bass has a rather cheerful sound on “This Will Make You Laugh.” I love these opening lines: “This will make you laugh/I built my dreams on you/This will make you laugh/They never did come true.” There is warmth and a sweet aspect to her vocal approach. She does seem to find humor in the sad situation, even though later she sings, “but it’s not funny to me.” At the end, however, she sings, “But it’s really not that funny to me,” so admitting some humor. This track features some wonderful work on guitar, and is one of my personal favorites. “This Will Make You Laugh” was written by Irene Higginbotham. That’s followed by “The Trouble With Hello Is Goodbye.” The strings begin this one, and help to create a rather sweet vibe. As with all of this album’s tracks, it has a beautiful, heartfelt, earnest vocal performance by Diana Panton. “We summered in each other’s arms/And slumbered in the glow/We never heard the whisper of snow.” I also love the lead on saxophone, the instrument given the time to express its own warmth and longing. That is then followed by “I’m Gonna Laugh You Right Out Of My Life.” I love Diana Panton’s approach. There is something intimate, yet dreamy about her vocals, which is perfect for these songs of broken hearts and lost loves, characters who are, to some extent, caught up in the past. “I know I’ll really need my sense of humor/I’m going to laugh you right out of my life/Make it a beautiful joke/No one will know you broke my heart.”

As “To Say Goodbye” starts, the music eases in with some gorgeous, melancholy work on piano. But when Diana Panton begins to sing, she gets right to the point, the opening lines being “Goodbye/It’s all over now.” Her voice in those first moments hits some deeper places, giving us the sense that she really is certain it is over. Yet she is soon asking, “Please come back to me/Come, if it’s one more time/Come, even just to say/Just to say goodbye.” Oh god, that is heart-wrenching. She knows it’s over, but still opens herself up like that to more heartache. Diana delivers an absolutely wonderful performance here. That is followed by “Meaning Of The Blues,” a song that directly uses the word “blue,” opening with these lines: “Blue was just the color of the sea/‘Til my lover left me/Blue was just a bluebird in a tree/‘Til he said, ‘Forget me’/Blue always made me think of summer/Cloudless summer skies so fresh and warm/But now the blue I see is more like winter.” There is something haunting in her performance on this one. This track also contains another moving lead on saxophone. Then “I’ll Only Miss Him When I Think Of Him” is a song about how difficult it feels to move on when a relationship has ended. “Maybe in time, I guess/This longing will grow the slightest bit less/And there will be moments, yes/When it disappears/I bet I’ll forget him completely/In about a hundred years.”

Four in the morning must be the time mentioned the most in songs, from Leonard Cohen’s “Famous Blue Raincoat” and Roger Daltrey’s “Milk Train” to Josh Lederman Y Los Diablos’ “Four In the Morning (Or, Love Streams)” and Ghalia & Mama’s Boys’ “4 AM Fried Chicken.” From The Everly Brothers’ “Do You” and the Carpenters’ “I Need To Be In Love” to Sam Llanas’ “4 A.M.” and “The Only One.” And maybe the answer to that can be found within the lyrics of “It’s Always 4 AM,” written by Ron Anthony and Sammy Cahn: “When you’re all alone/It’s always 4 AM.” Diana Panton’s vocal performance has an appropriate late-night vibe. That’s followed by “Just Sometimes,” which has an intimate feel, Diana Panton’s gorgeous vocal performance full of longing. “Somewhere the sunlight warms the air around you/Just sometimes I wish that I was there to hear the things you’re saying/And hear your laughter in every changing season/It’s only now in dreams I ever see your face.” It feels like her voice is at that point beyond tears, when the air is dark around her, no matter what time it might be, and the saxophone is the perfect instrument to add to that atmosphere. This is another of the disc’s highlights.

“How Did He Look?” might be the lightest song on the album. It’s about a woman who questions a friend on how her ex is doing, also curious about the woman her ex is now seeing. “Not that I really care,” she says after asking several questions. “Nobody’s Heart” also has something of light and airy vibe, with Diana Panton singing “Nobody’s heart belongs to me/Hi-ho, who cares?” at the beginning. This song was written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. That’s followed by Frank Loesser’s “Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year,” a song of loneliness, for in this one her man has left her, and winter lingers, the world seeming cold. But after that opening section, the song takes on a rhythm which gives us hope. And soon after that she sings, “Yes, time heals all things/So I needn’t cling to this fear/It’s merely that spring will be a little late this year.” Ah yes, she’s going to be all right, and even the saxophone sounds hopeful. The album concludes with “You Are There.” While at this point, the reminders of her lost love do not lead to despair, there is still sadness. There is still the urge to live within a dream of the past. “And all at once I realize/It’s morning, and my fantasy is fading/Like a distant star at dawn.”

CD Track List

1. Medley: Where Do You Start?/Once Upon A Time
2. Yesterday
3. Without Your Love
4. Losing My Mind
5. This Will Make You Laugh
6. The Trouble With Hello Is Goodbye
7. I’m Gonna Laugh You Right Out Of My Life
8. To Say Goodbye
9. Meaning Of The Blues
10. I’ll Only Miss Him When I Think Of Him
11. It’s Always 4 AM
12. Just Sometimes
13. How Did He Look?
14. Nobody’s Heart
15. Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year
16. You Are There

Blue was released on October 28, 2022.