In her concert appearances, Carol Sloane often sings a lovely ballad called "An Older Man is Like an Elegant Wine." Listening to Ms. Sloane extol the virtues of age and experience in a voice as soft and warm as angora wool, it is hard not to conclude that the sentiments of the lyric have an even more specific application to the art of jazz. The truth is that no matter how hot a young musician might be at a given moment, there is an expectation on the part of the jazz audience that the next concert or the next record will be better than the one before. Jazz rests on a tripod of craft, judgment and talent with talent being the only gift bestowed by nature. If a jazz musician is not better at 40 than he or she was at 20, then something has gone awry.

Still, talent, judgment and craft are rarely limitless commodities, and most artists eventually reach a point where their work begins to plateau or even decline. So when I Never Went Away, Carol Sloane's latest album, roughly her 24th, appeared on the HighNote label at the end of 2001, most fans and critics probably assumed the law of diminishing marginal returns would apply. After all, this is an internationally acclaimed singer whose career stretches back to the 1950s and whose work, particularly in the last fifteen years, has drawn near-universal praise. Could Carol Sloane's singing really get any better? The answer, it turns out, is yes.

I Never Went Away does not reflect a change in Carol Sloane's style so much as a refinement of her art. Sloane has almost always gotten the big things right. Listen to any of her records and you will hear a singer with excellent intonation, superb time and a genuine feel for the meaning of a lyric. Happily, her placement, timbral control and diction have never been better. Of course, technical improvements around the margins would not be enough to turn heads. What really separates Sloane's recent work, both on record and live, is the consistency with which she illuminates the details of a song. Sloane's greatest performances have always occurred when her musical and lyrical concentration have been tightly focused. When her attention wanders, whether due to dissatisfaction or unfamiliarity with the material, the accompaniment or the surroundings, the results tend to be pleasantly generic. However, when she is on her game, Sloane engages in jazz singing of the highest order—richly nuanced and emotionally compelling. On I Never Went Away, she is not only on her game but also at the top of it. Her concentration does not lapse even once resulting in not only the most satisfying album of her career, but one of finest examples of jazz singing in recent memory.

Like her idol and close friend