All About Jazz Review Of "Ask Me How Do I Feel" by Justin Marcus

On first listen, I would have placed Marcus’ birth place below the cotton curtain by his relaxed yet assertive phrasing (think Harry Connick on steroids without the New Orleans brogue) had his almost accent-less diction not thrown me off, as he is a New York City native. As it is I was not too far from the truth as Marcus attended college in New Orleans and certainly was exposed to that fertile music scene.

Marcus’ first recording, a self-produced effort titled from a line in Frank Loesser’s neglected “If I Were a Bell,” is a mixture of the old and new as the singer/pianist deftly mixes into solutions songs as different as Louis Jordan’s “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Meeting Across the River.” His nod to Sinatra (in name only) with “Lady is a Tramp” and “Embraceable You” shows how intentionally Marcus sets himself apart from the current population of male jazz vocalists. Marcus is backed by a competent band that never gets in his way. Marcus is an excellent pianist, completely capable of accompanying himself as he proves on Paul Simon’s “America.”

Justin Marcus is the most interesting vocalist to emerge into jazz in recent memory. He is a New York City product infused with the South like bourbon with mint in a julep. His introductory repertoire is carefully and thoughtfully chosen and superbly performed.