Celebrity crush: Jane Monheit

Here's a rare entry focusing on someone purely known for her musical work, not as an actress. Amazon and iTunes links follow. Any affiliate payments earned from your purchase or rental will help pay the hosting fees for my podcasts, so please consider clicking.

Name: Jane Monheit (images | Web site and YouTube channel | Twitter)
Hometown: The Long Island community of Oakdale, N.Y., according to her Wikipedia profile.
Best Known For: Jazz and adult contemporary recordings that have garnered her two Grammy nominations so far; collaborations with Terence Blanchard, Michael Bublé, Tom Harrell, and Ivan Lins, among others; and being the jazz singer not named Norah Jones whose album covers might be most likely to inspire a heterosexual male to buy it without knowing a thing about her music simply because a being that beautiful needs to be in that heterosexual male's home.

(Fortunately, the voice is as lovely as the face. The same too often cannot be said in the realm of factory-issued pop princesses AutoTuned to the point of sounding inhuman.)
Humble Beginnings: Jane began singing at a professional level while still in high school and earned a bachelor of arts in 1999 at the Manhattan School of Music. Along the way, she was named first runner-up in the 1998 Thelonious Monk Jazz Institute vocal competition.
Not Just a Pretty Face (or Voice): In addition to singing, Jane plays the piano -- and the clarinet, an instrument that is usually not the first, second, or 12th to come to mind when considering a jazz musician.

Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: Ye Olde Podcaster is precisely that shallow heterosexual male who first picked up a Jane Monheit CD (the 2001 release Come Dream With Me, to be precise) because he was struck by the beautiful woman on the cover. But the voice was a wonderful surprise, warm and sweet with a sense of fun and a willingness to venture outside the jazz realm to find material, with covers of Bread and Joni Mitchell on that particular album.

Albums: Home (2010) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Lovers, the Dreamers, and Me (2009) (Amazon | iTunes) * Best of Jane Monheit (2008) (Amazon -- with bonus Live at the Rainbow DVD! | iTunes) * Surrender (2007) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Season (2005) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Very Best of Jane Monheit (2005) (Amazon | iTunes) * Taking a Chance on Love (2004) (Amazon | iTunes) * Live at the Rainbow Room (2003) (Amazon | iTunes) * In the Sun (2002) (Amazon | iTunes) * Come Dream With Me (2001) (Amazon | iTunes) * Never Never Land (2000) (Amazon | iTunes)

No one complains when giant hot women attack.

On video: Ramsey Lewis' Legends of Jazz (2006 miniseries) (Box set at Amazon - also Showcase DVD | iTunes) * Taking a Chance on Love: Jane Monheit in Concert (2005) (Amazon | iTunes) * Jane Monheit: Live at the Rainbow Room (2003) (Amazon | iTunes) * A Tribute to Leiber and Stoller (2002) (Amazon | iTunes) * Evening at the Pops: Born in Boston with Chick Corea, Terence Blanchard, and Jane Monheit (2001) (Amazon | iTunes) * Joshua Bell with Friends at The Penthouse: A Lincoln Center Special (Amazon | iTunes)

(Albums below may feature as little as one appearance by Jane, or may include a more substantial appearance. Some might even include tracks found on her own albums. I include links to the entire albums for the sake of convenience. Chances are, if you're a jazz fan, you'll enjoy the entire album.)

Guest appearances: Intimo (2010) by Ivan Lins (Amazon | iTunes) * Radio Show (2009) by Tony DeSare (Amazon | iTunes) * Friends and Family (2008) by Ray Brown Jr. (Amazon | iTunes) * New Music From an Old Friend (2008) (Amazon | iTunes) * Rachael Ray: How Cool Is That Christmas (2006) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Frank and Joe Show: 66 2/3 (2005) (Amazon | iTunes) * Martha Stewart Living Music: Traditional Songs for the Holidays (2005) (Amazon | iTunes) * Enter the Mowo (2004) by Adam Dorn/Mocean Worker (Amazon | iTunes) * The Frank and Joe Show: 33 1/3 (2004) (Amazon | iTunes) * Soundtrack to Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow (2004) (Amazon | iTunes) * In Full Swing (2003) by Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing Trio (Amazon | iTunes) * Wise Children (2003) by Tom Harrell (Amazon | iTunes) * In the Name of Love (2003) by Freddy Cole (Amazon | iTunes) * Two Hands, Ten Voices (2003) by Fred Hersch (Amazon | iTunes) * The Miki Imai Songbook: Take Me to the Sunshine (2003) (Amazon | iTunes) * Love Songs (2002) by Ivan Lins (Amazon | iTunes) * Brazilian Nights feat. Romero Lubambo: Rio Wave (2002) (Amazon | iTunes) * Les Brown Session 55 (2001) (Amazon | iTunes) * Let's Get Lost (2001) by Terence Blanchard (Amazon | iTunes) * Standard Time (2001) by Steve Tyrell (Amazon | iTunes)