Gladys Carbo has a husky and exotic voice with a difficult-to-place accent. Her emotionally restrained style (slightly reminiscent of
Astrud Gilberto) is fine in small doses, but wears thin after a short time. The vocalist utilizes a rather small range, often sounds bored and sings practically everything at the same dynamic level. Five of the ten selections on her release find Carbo backed by the duo of guitarist
Gene Bertoncini and bassist
Michael Moore, "A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square" just has
Bertoncini, and the four other performances feature a quintet or sextet, but the focus is almost entirely on Gladys Carbo. Unfortunately, her set lacks any real excitement or variety, making it of lesser interest. ~ Scott Yanow