Vocalist Diane Schuur has teamed with composer Barry Manilow and his co-writer Eddie Arkin for this, her third album for Concord. “Midnight” is very well-produced, and the instrumental arrangements are quite cozy, but this is yet another album where Schuur comes off as something other than a jazz singer. For an artist with jazz pretensions, Schuur has always had too much pop in her vocabulary, and Manilow and Arkin’s tunes sound more like a Broadway soundtrack than a collection of bona fide jazz songs. “Midnight” is a nice, almost nostalgic pop album. The arrangements, however, have little force of jazz imagination and no adventuresome solo instrumental performances that even suggest improvisation. Evidently, no one involved wanted to get out on the edge of the material and swing.—PVV
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