Silent Movie

It can be easily forgotten sometimes, but stories – telling them, hearing them – are at the heart of why we make music and are moved by it. Singer Melissa Stylianou feels this deep down, and with her fourth album – Silent Movie – she moves closer than ever to the essence of storytelling in song. Stylianou renews standards long beloved in jazz – “Smile,” “Moon River,” “The Folks Who Live on the Hill” – even as she helps broaden the field by putting a personal spin on songs by James Taylor, Paul Simon, Johnny Cash and Joanna Newsom, accompanied by such top New York players as saxophonist/clarinetist Anat Cohen. Channeling a venerable tradition in jazz, Stylianou also puts her own lyrics to the music of celebrated composers, breathing fresh emotional life into instrumental pieces by Edgar Meyer and Vince Mendoza. And the album’s affecting title track is a new Stylianou co-composition that underscores why Downbeat magazine described her as “an original.”