ALBUM REVIEW: "Laura Dubin Plays The Great American Songbook"

By Ron Netsky

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Laura Dubin

"Laura Dubin Plays The Great American Songbook"

Self-released

lauradubin.com

Countless jazz artists have mined the Great American Songbook for gems to interpret. But it's precisely because so many albums are filled with standards that artists have to bring something new to the table if they want to stand apart. In the case of pianist (and Rochester native) Laura Dubin, it's a combination of superb technique and an imaginative approach to every tune that makes her new CD vibrant from start to finish.

Dubin, who begins by playing solo, is joined by two excellent players: her husband, Antonio H. Guerrero, on drums, and her brother, Nick Dubin, on bass. Her style is wide-ranging, from boogie-woogie on Irving Berlin's "Let Yourself Go" through swing on "Stompin' at the Savoy," to a Bossa Nova-like treatment of "Like Someone in Love." She finds a new way to play each tune, whether it's changing the time signature on "All the Things You Are" or laying dissonant chords under "My Favorite Things." The common denominator is virtuosity; every time she launches into a solo, her keyboard prowess comes through loud and clear.