Here's a rarity: an album, nearly a vanity album, featuring a group of high school vocal jazz students, that happens to be good. Not just good by the standards of student ensembles, but good by the standards of modern vocal jazz. The students here do have help. The backing band is an exceptionally strong one -- the main hands on deck for -- and the arrangements are worked out (in large part by the individual singers) for a tone and mood that fit the singers' strengths. Many pieces become more ponderous, more thoughtful, more fitting of modern jazz. is slowed down and given a deeper sense of longing by careful phrasing. lets flow up and down the scales in the realm of . 's is reworked more recognizably, though a little closer to its original intent. The voices here have already developed past the level of the average torch singer, using complex phrasings to add vulnerability, disdain, and longing to every song. The nuance of the performances is the factor that sells them. An excellent showcase for modern vocal jazz that isn't just attempting to mimic or . ~ Adam Greenberg