Jami Templeton

The Shape Of My Heart

Self-Released, 2022

8/10

Listen to The Shape Of My Heart

An artist with a profoundly beautiful voice, Jami Templeton chooses 11 songs from the American songbook that represent an important piece of her life, as Joel Frahm (tenor sax), Andy Langham (piano, melodica), Edwin Livingston (bass) and Charles Ruggiero (drums) illuminate her timeless jazz vision.

“Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground” starts the listen with Templeton’s dreamy vocals surrounded by twinkling keys and light bass in the poetic climate, and the title track follows with delicate drumming complementing the intimate singing.

Elsewhere, “Let’s Stay Together” showcases agile piano amid the romantic landscape, while “Need You Now” is particularly stirring in its soft yet powerful performance that puts a very unique angle on the classic track.

Approaching the end, “I Fall In Love Too Easily” has Templeton singing alongside precisely plucked bass and gentle keys, and “The Dance” exits the listen louder, initially, before settling into cozy brass and mature keys.

We’re not used to hearing these pop and rock tunes in a jazz-influeneced setting, and they only came to be after Templeton survived Lyme disease and Covid, which provided the impetus for getting back to her love of singing. While let’s hope there are no more health scares on the horizon, we would all benefit from more cautious interpretations that are, with any luck, coming soon.

Travels well with: Shannon Gunn- On A Mountain; Sarah Jerrom- Dream Logic