I Have Dreamed

Minneapolis-based Connie Evingson combines her experience in musical theater with her jazz singing in I Have Dreamed, a 55-minute set of Broadway standards backed by a crack ensemble. If there's a fault here, it's that the selections seem a little too safe--an overreliance on My Fair Lady and Rodgers and Hammerstein tunes that we've heard umpteen times before. That's probably why the highlight is a searing take on The Golden Apple's "Lazy Afternoon," with guitar and percussion providing her only accompaniment. Evingson fans will want this CD, but novices would do better to start with her more straightforward jazz releases, Fever: A Tribute to Peggy Lee and Some Cats Know. --David Horiuchi