Beginning with a luxuriant reading of the Duke Ellington/Carl Sigman song, ‘All Too Soon’, this exceptional tribute to Ella Fitzgerald represents a number of firsts for the Long Island native: it's the debut project for her new label, Emerald City Records, and the first recording Monheit has made without a major label; it's the first project she's worked on with producer, arranger and trumpet player, Nicholas Payton; and, as its title suggests, this could also be the first in an ongoing series of Songbook Sessions. If the results of this paean to Ella are anything to go by, let's hope so. The intensity and depth of emotion Monheit brings to these 12 standards at times takes the breath away, rather as if she's channeling the soul of her instrument in a completely unfiltered way. She's aided greatly by Payton's 21st-century reboot of evergreens such as ‘Somebody Loves Me’, ‘Something's Gotta Give’, ‘All Of You’ and ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’. The brief yet seamless interpolation of Amy Winehouse's ‘Know You Now’ in the Gershwins’ ‘I Was Doing All Right’ is an especially deft arranging touch, with some lovely textural detail provided by harpist Brandee Younger. Written for the 1941 film Blues in the Night, Monheit signs off with a gorgeous, supremely understated version of the Arlen/Mercer song, ‘This Time The Dream's On Me’.