Jersey Jazz Review by Joe Lang

Following an 18-year hiatus from performing as an acclaimed cabaret artist, vocalist WENDY SCHERL returned to the scene in 2015, and now has released her first album, You’ll See (Harbinger Records – 3504), a 14-track collection comprising mostly songs from musical theater.  At the urging of Barry Kleinbort, she undertook this recording with arrangements by Kleinbort and pianist/musical director Christopher Denny.  The band includes Denny, bassist Bob Renino, drummer/percussionist Rex Benincasa, reedman Ken Dybisz, trumpeter Hollis Burridge, trombonist Dan Levine, baritone saxophonist Rick Walburn and cellist Eric Allen.  Scherl has selected a program that is well-paced and interesting.  Her opener, “You’ll See,” is a superb stand-alone song by Carroll Coates, and sets the bar high, a bar that she easily clears throughout the program.  There are many surprising delights sprinkled throughout the program like Rusty Magee’s “New York Romance” and “There Are Two Sides to Everything” from Alice Through the Looking Glass, a television musical.  You’ll See has already had several plays in this quarter, and there will be more in the future.