Ronny Whyte has been around the jazz and cabaret scene for quite some years now, he is an ASCAP Award-winning songwriter; his lyric “Forget the Woman” was recorded by Tony Bennett, and his music for ‘The Party Upstairs’ won the MAC Award for Best Song of 2006. He also produces and hosts Midtown Jazz at Midday at St. Peter’s in Manhattan, a weekly jazz concert series. He does have a wonderfully delicate touch on piano, and overall this album is enjoyable without being great, although there are a few things that do make it grate at times. It was recorded over just a couple of days last December with a band who are all great musicians, but one wonders if there was enough time spent on the vocals, as there are times when Ronny is slightly off-key or sharp, not something that one really wants from an album where the mellow swing style has the vocals very much to the fore.
Most songs on the album have been written by others, with just a few by Ronny himself, and it is one of the latter that make me grate my teeth every time I play it. The song in question is “Blame It On The Movies”, and for the most part is a Dean Martin-style swing piece telling a story of woe. So far so good, but what makes me wince is the way he says he thought he would by now be “happily mated” and why doesn’t he star in scenes that are normally “X-rated”? Even writing that sentence makes me pause, it is wrong on just so many levels. If you do want to find out any more about Ronny then visit http://ronnywhyte.com.
