FRANK SENIOR
Listening in the Dark with Frank Senior (Smalls)

If 10 of the 11 tracks that fill Frank Senior's debut album seem familiar,
perhaps it's because they were first released last year under the title Let
Me Be Frank. Now, with one added track, a rollicking "Route 66," the aptly
named Senior (who stalled his performing career for several decades, putting
his family's needs first by operating a newsstand) is back on store shelves
and ready to impress fans of soulful jazz singing.
Given Senior's sandpapery growl and innate bluesiness, coupled with the fact
that he opts to open with "You Don't Know Me," it's tempting to categorize
him as a Ray Charles wannabe. Indeed, Senior-who, like Charles, has been
blind since childhood (actually, in Senior's case, since birth)-owes a
considerable debt to Brother Ray. But he is equally beholden to Billy
Eckstine, Lou Rawls and George Benson. In other words, Senior has learned
from the best, and comes away with a sound all his own that is at once
tender and tough, vulnerable and impermeable.
With pianist Richard Clements and guitarist Saul Rubin, Senior has crafted
consistently imaginative arrangements, including a peppy "This Can't Be
Love," a breezy "On the Street Where You Live," a gorgeously satisfied "The
Very Thought of You" and a delightfully effervescent "The Best Things in
Life Are Free." But the standout track is Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen's
obscure "Someone to Tell It To," a gentle admonition of a loveless life's
emptiness, made all the more profound by Senior's superbly sensitive
reading.

-Christopher Loudon