A Self-Portrait

A tale of lost innocence and hard-earned lessons. Songs from such writers as Stevie Nicks, Joni Mitchell, and Paul Simon, as well as familiar chestnuts, sound as personal here as pages ripped from Hilary's diary. To see Hilary Kole step onto a bandstand is like watching Gene Tierney make her entrance in Laura: the view is so dazzling that, at first, it's hard to notice anything else. But Hilary's musicianship can't be overlooked. Her tangy-sweet, liquid tone is impeccably in tune; she's also a conservatory-trained composer and pianist who has studied theory, harmony, arranging, and jazz technique. When she set out to become a singer, she says, "I wanted to know as much as everybody in the band. I didn't want to be that girl who doesn't know where to come in." ... A sense of freedom pervades this CD. For the first time, nearly every artistic decision was hers aided by the fatherly wisdom of co-producer Jim Czak, owner of New York's historic, now-defunct Nola Recording Studios, where Hilary made her first demo at fourteen. Veering at last from the standards, she has discovered an important part of her voice through such writers as Stevie Nicks, Joni Mitchell, and Paul Simon. Their songs, as well as familiar chestnuts, sound as personal here as pages ripped from her diary. Most were arranged with a translucent grace by Hilary herself. ... She found While We're Young via two of her key inspirations, the jazz vocal duo Jackie and Roy. For her, that lilting waltz by Alec Wilder and William Engvick holds profound meaning: "As long as you can hope for the future then you're young." That involves leaving room for fun. It's All Right with Me, Cole Porter's hard-boiled look at a one-night stand, acquires a lowdown riff, played by pianist Tedd Firth, that could have come from a 1960s detective series. As a jazz singer, Hilary lets loose here like never before. Her dreamy reinvention of And I Love (Him) floats on the sparse chords of pianist John DiMartino and guitarist John Hart. John Pizzarelli, who produced two of her previous albums, suggested Lemon Twist, Bobby Troup's skittering, boppish ode to cocktail-swilling hipsters of the '50s. Hilary breezes through its tricky intervals, swinging all the way. --James Gavin