Masse can beautifully ruminate in an exposed setting ("Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered"), soar atop Hyman's high energy piano work ("Love For Sale"), and inhabit a headspace well beyond her years ("September Song"). This mostly standards set gives pause to admire Hyman's effortless mastery of his instrument, Masse's draw-you-in talents and the combinatorial strength of both parties involved. In many ways, this walk-both-sides-of-the-fence persona is responsible for the initial meeting between Masse and the legendary Hyman their first encounter took place on Garrison Keillor's famed folk-leaning radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, where they performed pianist Duke Ellington's "I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)." That number, along with eleven other stunners, appears on Lock My Heart. Her membership in this Juno Award-winning outfit helped her to establish her folk credentials, but Masse never completely abandoned jazz she maintained dual citizenship, made evident by her work with violinist Mark O'Connor and the release of a jazz-inflected folk EP, Many Moons (Self Produced, 2008).
Masse, who hails from Maine and resides in the Catskills, earned her jazz vocal stripes at the New England Conservatory, but she earned her reputation in the world at large as a folk singer with The Wailin' Jennys. As a youngster, Masse used Dick Hyman's Professional Chord Changes and Substitutions for 100 Tunes Every Musician Should Know (Warner Bros., 1986) as a vocal road map through the world of jazz standards little did she know she'd be recording with the very man who put the book together less than two decades later.
HEATHER MASSE FULL
In a way, vocalist Heather Masse has come full circle with the release of Lock My Heart.
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