| Jazz |
A Voice of Drama and Depth: Marilyn Kleinberg Lets Her Heart Lead the Way.
For Marilyn Kleinberg, a familiar and beloved presence in New York’s jazz club scene, it was a chance encounter that set the wheels in motion for Let Your Heart Lead the Way, her latest and most fully realized album to date. The moment came at Brooklyn’s Soapbox Gallery, where the singer was performing with pianist John Di Martino and bassist Noriko Ueda. Among the audience that evening was the renowned harmonica virtuoso Will Galison. Struck by the intimacy and power of the performance, Galison made an offer then and there: he would produce a recording session with the trio—on the condition, slyly suggested, that a drummer be added, along with Galison himself stepping in as featured soloist.
The addition of legendary drummer Victor Lewis turned the trio into a formidable quintet, and the result is a strikingly organic album that presents Kleinberg at her expressive peak. The arrangements are sparse, even minimal at times, but intentionally so. This lean framework provides the necessary space for Kleinberg’s commanding vocal presence, a presence that, occasionally, might feel too assertive for the material but never fails to engage. This is a record designed to feel live, immediate, as though the listener were seated a few feet from the stage in a smoky downtown club.
To truly understand what makes Kleinberg’s artistry resonate, one must look to her roots. The daughter of comedian Bernie Allen, she grew up in the Bronx, surrounded by a swirl of rhythm, language, and performance. Her first exposure to singing came through school a cappella groups, a formative experience that sharpened her ear and phrasing. After experimenting with rock, pop, and soul ensembles, she eventually found her home in jazz, a genre that rewards storytelling and nuance, both of which she wields with rare authority.
Over the years, Kleinberg has become a fixture in the hallowed rooms of Greenwich Village: Sweet Basil, Seventh Avenue South, Mezzrow, Small’s, and Birdland, to name just a few. Her collaborators have included a roster of modern jazz greats, Kenny Kirkland, Larry Willis, Ron Carter, Jaco Pastorius, Buster Williams, Hiram Bullock, and Cindy Blackman among them. Each brought their own sensibility to her performances, but always in service of her singular voice, which defies easy classification, bold, theatrical, deeply human.
On this new album, that collaborative magic is particularly evident on “Alfie,” a track so emotionally rich and dynamically rendered that it nearly redefines the song. Rarely has this Bacharach-David standard felt so infused with gravitas. Kleinberg delivers it not as a nostalgic chestnut but as a miniature drama, every phrase steeped in lived experience. This dramaturgical depth is her trademark, and it shines throughout the album, which flows less like a collection of tracks and more like a one-woman stage show.
Her band, though discreet, is anything but anonymous. Each player contributes color, air, and quiet propulsion, often pulling back to allow her voice to hover, almost unaccompanied, in a way that’s both fragile and fearless. There’s a tension and release in the interplay that recalls the golden age of cabaret performance, but with a distinctly modern sensibility. If the opening track feels slightly constrained, the remainder of the album quickly finds its stride, fluid, unforced, and emotionally resonant.
Listening to Let Your Heart Lead the Way is a bit like attending a recital from a bygone era. It calls to mind the ghost-light warmth of Yves Montand at the Olympia in Paris, an energy that doesn’t simply seek to entertain but to inhabit the very space between performer and listener. Kleinberg is, in that sense, an artist out of time: a vocalist who channels stories through every breath, every glance, every dramatic pause.
Whether she’s reinterpreting standards or unearthing lesser-known gems, Kleinberg makes you forget to ask whether you’ve heard a song before. Much like Montand, she is the kind of performer you listen to not for the material, but for the way she makes it matter.
Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, June 19th 2025
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Tracking List :
1 Invitation
Written-By – Bronislaw Kaper, Paul Francis Webster
2 Alfie
Written-By – Bacharach And David
3 I Didn’t Know About You
Written-By – Bob Russell, Duke Ellington
4 Then I’ll Be Tired of You
Written-By – Arthur Schwartz, E.Y. Harburg
5 I Just Found Out About Love
Written-By – Harold Adamson, Jimmy McHugh
6 Never Let Me Go
Written-By – Livingston & Evans
7 Visions
Written-By – Stevie Wonder
8 Say It
Written-By – Frank Loesser, Jimmy McHugh
9 If I Only Had A Brain
Written-By – E.Y. Harburg, Harold Arlen
10 You Won’t Forget Me
Written-By – Fred Spielman, Kermit Goell
11 I Didn’t Know What Time It Was
Written-By – Rodgers & Hart
Credits:
Arranged By, Piano, Music Director – John Di Martino
Bass – Noriko Ueda
Drums – Victor Lewis
Mixed By, Recorded By [Additional] – David Darlington
Photography By, Graphic Design – Christopher Drukker
Producer, Harmonica, Recorded By [Additional] – William Galison
Vocals – Marilyn Kleinberg