" data-original-title="" title="">Frank Sinatra's Telefunken U47 ("Telly") microphone, to boot. The recordings were analog mixed and mastered to 1/4" 30ips stereo tape, with engineering provided by Al Schmitt/Steve Genewick (tracking); Michael Bishop (mixing) and Bernie Grundman (mastering). The media produced for distribution are: One-Step 180 gram/45RPM/Double Vinyl LP; stereo SACD (Super Audio CD) Hybrids; and 1/4" 15ips reel-to-reel tape. What all this gear-head speak means is that the environment for the music has all the proper sonic nutrients and dry warmth to produce the type of recorded sound we, of a certain age, can remember hearing. Stanley's aim is to record and produce media able to provide test material for high-end audiophile playback systems; to do it thoughtfully and creatively; and to honor the music produced.

Stanley's repertoire here is already amply time-tested to the point where it is fair to ask, ..."if we could possibly need one more standards vocal set?" Every generation needs an artist to set an example of how the songs making up the Great American Songbook are performed as nominally envisioned by the composers. For me, my introduction to the Songbook was through Linda Ronstadt's mid-'80s standards recordings, What's New (Asylum, 1983); Lush Life (Asylum, 1984); and For Sentimental Reasons (Asylum, 1986). Were these great vocal recordings? I suspect they were good enough as they got me interested in these songs from the 1920s-'50s that basically defined a jazz canon after 1945.

For the front end of the 21st Century, a solid argument can be made that Lyn Stanley is an artist bearing the mantle of teacher, to a new generation of music listeners, of the times and places from which jazz, instrumental and vocal music came. This extant collection of songs called "standards" has been nothing if not durable in its various interpretations. What Stanley provides in her previous three recordings, and now The Moonlight Sessions, Volume 1, is an elegantly conservative approach to these songs that can be compared to that of Frank Sinatra. Sinatra had great respect for the composers and songwriters providing him material, and he honored them in his styling of their songs. His interest was never about improvisation; it was always about sincere and well-balanced delivery. So, too, is Stanley's charge. Her recordings' superb sonics and carefully considered arrangements provide a nourishing environment for her to present these songs in a sophisticated manner befitting their introduction to the newly exposed.

Finally, Stanley reminds us of the difference between a "song stylist" and a "jazz singer," though, if we were to construct a proper Venn diagram, there would certainly be overlap between the two. In comparison, Stanley has more in common with Sinatra than, say,