Trumpeter and vocalist Brian Newman has made a living hitting the NYC circuit and occasionally gigging with Lady Gaga. Here, for his first album for Verve, he shows the bona-fides of a jazzer that is able to connect with the masses in ways few people this side of Diana Krall are able. On vocals, he gives a swagger to a Caribbean flavored “Jockey Full of Bourbon” while crooning with pathos on a gloriously desultory “You Don’t Know What Love Is” with a similarly distraught teaming with Gaga at the mic on “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstoond.”
With his band of Steve Kortyka/ts-fl, Alex Smith/-p-key, Joe Peri/dr, Daniel Foose/b and Paul Francis/dr, he is as hip as Dumbo with a smoking B3 on Wayne Shorter’s “One By One” and a vintage Blue Note bop cooker for “Sunday In New York,” with the tribute to the trumpet giant Freddie Hubbard oozing with CTI-flavored soul on the groover “Brother Hubbard.” Newman’s sweet tone creates warm embers on “San Pedro” and he boogaloos with a valve on a smoky read of the old hit “Spooky.” This guy has great taste in song selection, originals and delivery. Can he hit and field?