Jami Templeton - The Shape of My Heart
With The Shape of My Heart, Los Angeles’ Jami Templeton debuts as a jazz chanteuse with a back story compelling as her music is enchanting. The former operatic diva experienced the double hit of a battle against Lyme disease followed by a case of COVID-19. Upon recovery, a friend suggested Templeton return to the genre that set her to singing in the first place.
She and producer/pianist/band leader Andy Langham pored through hundreds of jazz standards as well as more recent pop, country and soul selections to stitch together a cohesive 11-song collection. Though enigmatically autobiographical, The Shape of My Heart more importantly introduces a vocalist whose intimate sultriness and vulnerability often imbues her song choices with heretofore unheard poignance. The depth she plumbs in Lady Antebellum’s country-pop crossover, “Need You Now,” alone justifies her effort; but the wonders she works on numbers first popularized by Sting, Willie Nelson, Garth Brooks and Al Green shimmer with an interpretive depth. Only Templeton’s rendition of Alannah Myles’ early’'90s ode to Elvis Presley’s rise and mystique, “Black Velvet,” sounds askew, at least textually (it would be enlightening to hear Templeton explain its inclusion, perhaps in a concert setting). Even then, however, Langham and his accomplices on upright bass, tenor saxophone and drums swing with smoky sympathy to La Jami’s musings.
Shame as it was that Templeton had to go through a double whammy to bring her to her current artistic triumph, her Heart shows that opera’s loss is jazz's gain.
