In the Night Album Release from Mary Ann Palermo and Dave Smith
In the Night, released in late 2024 by Averosa Records, presents old Jazz standards and half-forgotten classics of Jazz reimagined by singer Mary Ann Palermo and five-time Emmy winner Dave Smith on Steinway grand piano. Not only are the performances wonderful, but Smith’s audio engineering and production magic of this live-in-studio recording achieves a subtle sonic space that provides heightened listening pleasure.
Gorgeous album! Beautiful arrangements to great songs that we all know and love, and so beautifully easy to listen to. Mary and Dave take me on a peaceful journey and make me wish I could sit with nothing to do and sip a glass of red wine and lose myself in the beautiful vocals and piano playing. It’s so great to hear an album like this. It brings much comfort to the chaos of the day.
—Matt Cusson, the Grammy-nominated, multiple award-winning singer, pianist, songwriter, producer, and arranger
Palermo’s vocals—and her long love and practice in the art of jazz singing—recreate in brand new ways familiar standards and now-obscure hits. In his piano playing Smith brings his own take to these Jazz classics. Smith also brings his decades of work in audio engineering to this submersive music project, creating recordings where the balance, clarity, and dynamic range of his piano playing is optimized with Palermo’s vocals.
In The Night demonstrates that there may be no more intimate nor rewarding a setting for jazz than a vocal-piano duo. In her latest album, Mary Ann Palermo offers gut-wrenching takes on some of the most beautiful and raw ballads of the Great American Songbook. Whether you first heard these numbers by Billie Holiday or Billy Eckstine, or anyone else, for that matter, Mary Ann and Dave Smith pair up for a stunning and memorable set.
—Edward J. Bride, President, Berkshires Jazz, Inc.
In the Night is a collection of eight American Jazz ballads and torch songs carried by Palermo’s singing and imbued with exacting control of ranging emotional tone, accompanied by Smith’s Steinway piano performances. Both artists’ efforts are melded within a distinct sonic environment to carry the pensive and yearning stories of these songs, presenting the listener with mood states that evoke personal wonder and feelings that only great music can offer.
[In the Night is] music for late-night jaunts, the title says it all. Pianist Dave Smith and vocalist Mary Ann Palermo gently, intimately glide through eight familiar standards, with nary a variance in mood or delivery. They speak as one.”
—John Ephland, AllAboutJazz.com
Perfect for the listener’s close and meditative attention, In the Night is also great for intimate sharing. The album’s selections range from the early days of Jazz—including works now in public domain—to the still-ubiquitous jazz standards of today. In the Night is a celebration of old-style nightclubs and smoky jazz bars but transformed by the highest production values that support the transcendent experience available in the best music performances captured within a powerfully crafted aural space.
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to In The Night. I always enjoy stuff that is sincere and sets a tone or mood [and] on those points this recording succeeds, with vocal jazz and piano jazz for just the right setting.
—Steve Rubin, Founder/Director, Hudson Valley Jazz Festival