| Jazz |
Kuchocki Sings Gene DiNovi – But Only For You: A Love Letter to a Great Songbook
Few albums feel like a conversation between generations, and this one is a superb example. On Kuchocki Sings DiNovi – But Only For You, Canadian vocalist and producer Juliann Kuchocki gives a new life to the songs of the legendary pianist and composer Gene DiNovi. He is now 98 and has been making music for more than eighty years. The result is far more than a tribute record: it is a warm, elegant and often playful collection of love songs that deserves to be heard, and that we recommend with great pleasure.
The story behind the album is lovely. Kuchocki first invited DiNovi to the South Coast Jazz Festival, the festival she founded in southwestern Ontario, and a friendship grew. He then sent her a bundle of handwritten charts of songs few people had ever heard. In 2019 they began to record together in Toronto, with DiNovi at the piano, and two of those first sessions are on the album today: “Once I Met a Day” and “Boy, Do I Have a Surprise for You”.
Then the pandemic arrived and everything stopped. By the time recording could start again, DiNovi had largely stepped back from performing. Kuchocki refused to let the project fade away. She gathered some of the best musicians in Canada to complete the programme, and finished the album in 2026, keeping the pianist’s own performances at its heart. That is why this record feels like a living document rather than a memorial: you hear the composer himself, and you feel that everyone around him wanted to do him justice.
DiNovi’s career is a history of jazz in itself. Born in Brooklyn in 1928, he was fifteen when he found himself on a New York bandstand with Dizzy Gillespie and then Charlie Parker. He went on to play with Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Lester Young, and became one of the most sensitive accompanists for great singers such as Lena Horne, Peggy Lee, Anita O’Day, Carmen McRae and Tony Bennett. Since moving to Toronto in 1972, he has been a pillar of Canadian jazz.
What this album reveals is the composer behind the pianist. His melodies are graceful and singable, and they sit naturally with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, Spence Maxwell, Tony Velona, Gary Michael Dault and others. The title song, “But Only For You”, co-written with none other than Peggy Lee, is here recorded for the very first time, which makes the album a small piece of discovery in itself. It is the kind of songwriting that Kuchocki wants to present as a new set of standards, and after listening we have no trouble agreeing with her.
Kuchocki’s career started in musical theatre and dance and she has had to learn, after serious accidents and a long recovery, how to let a jazz lyric breathe. You can hear the result. Her voice is clear, expressive and supple, conversational in the low and middle register, shining and luminous when she climbs higher, and she never pushes more than the song requires. Her dancer’s sense of rhythm shows too: she swings with the natural ease of someone who feels time in her body.
The eleven songs are sequenced like a little journey. The opening number, “I Like What I See in You”, is a bright, flirtatious swing with violin, guitar and piano all trading ideas, an ideal calling card. “One Like You” follows in a hushed, intimate mood, with a delicate guitar figure and a lyric about wanting something lasting, and the contrast between the two shows right away how many colours she has.
“Once I Met a Day”, with DiNovi at the piano, is dreamy and wistful, and Kuchocki follows the song’s rising wonder with great subtlety. “One Very Small Wish” has a light, lilting shuffle and a touch of coquetry, while “Have a Heart”, with words by Johnny Mercer, is a melancholier ballad enriched by Drew Jurecka’s yearning violin, which seems to answer the voice phrase by phrase. The title track is a real highlight: a slow, bluesy, strolling groove, and a vocal full of sassy confidence, as the singer lists the extravagant things she would do for her beloved. It has the spirit of classic cabaret and still sounds entirely like her.
Springtime runs through the second half. “It Might Just Be Spring” starts with a dramatic piano flourish before settling into a fragile, hopeful ballad, and “I Fall in Love in the Springtime” is a graceful, slow-moving piece in which violin and voice talk to each other. “Love Can Do Anything” is one of the most moving moments, almost whispered, with piano, brushes and violin, and a message of reconciliation that feels especially welcome today. Then comes “Boy, Do I Have a Surprise for You”, a delicate duet between voice and DiNovi’s piano, with a final twist that will make you smile. As a bonus, the album closes with “Waltz of the Heart”, written by pianist Charu Suri with words by Kuchocki, a gentle waltz about reaching an unexpected place after hard times, with violin and guitar adding a hopeful glow.
The musicians are a delight. Neil Swainson on bass (who toured with George Shearing) and Mark Kelso on drums form a supple, elegant rhythm section, Rob Piltch’s guitar is nimble and tasteful, and Drew Jurecka’s violin, from a two-time Grammy winner, is a true second voice throughout. Six pianists share the keyboard, each with a distinct personality: Gene DiNovi himself, Brian Dickinson, Ewen Farncombe, Adrean Farrugia, Nancy Walker and Charu Suri. It could have felt uneven, instead the variety gives the album a lively, almost theatrical range of moods, held together by the singer’s taste and by the producer’s sense of arc.
In our modern world where I feel that music often seems to be made for the next four or five minutes, this album takes its time, and it believes in the power of a good tune and a well-turned lyric. It is romantic without being too sentimental, witty without being facile, and played with a rare mix of freshness and respect. It also brings the songs of a great jazz figure to listeners who may never have heard them, at a moment when he can still enjoy the attention. I love its warmth and its generosity, and I hope many people will discover it.
Frankie Pfeiffer
Editor in chief – PARIS-MOVE
PARIS-MOVE, October 24th, 2026
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Tracklisting (all music by Gene DiNovi, except track 11):
- I Like What I See in You (lyrics: Spence Maxwell)
- One Like You (lyrics: Tony Velona)
- Once I Met a Day (lyrics: Tony Velona)
- One Very Small Wish (lyrics: Spence Maxwell)
- Have a Heart (lyrics: Johnny Mercer)
- But Only For You (lyrics: Peggy Lee)
- It Might Just Be Spring (lyrics: Gary Michael Dault)
- Love Can Do Anything
- I Fall in Love in the Springtime (lyrics: Gary Michael Dault)
- Boy, Do I Have a Surprise for You (lyrics: Spence Maxwell)
- Waltz of the Heart (music: Charu Suri; lyrics: Juliann Kuchocki)
Musicians:
Juliann Kuchocki – vocals
Drew Jurecka – violin (tracks 1, 5, 8, 9, 11)
Rob Piltch – guitar (tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11)
Neil Swainson – bass (all tracks except 10)
Mark Kelso – drums (all tracks except 10, 11)
Piano: Gene DiNovi (3, 10), Brian Dickinson (2, 8), Ewen Farncombe (1, 5, 6), Adrean Farrugia (4, 9), Nancy Walker (7), Charu Suri (11)
Credits:
Produced by Juliann Kuchocki
Recorded and mixed by Julian Decorte and Adam King
Mastered at Wreckhouse Mastering, Toronto
Recorded March 20 to May 11, 2026, with the 2019 sessions with Gene DiNovi at Canterbury Music Company, Toronto
Artwork by Lorne Kadish and Juliann Kuchocki