Live from Manila

Recorded in September 2004 during a two-night stand at Merks Bar Bistro—a jazz club located in the capital city of the Philippines—Live in Manila brings the career of Angela Bofill full circle, as the Bronx-born singer had been discovered 30 years prior in a Manhattan jazz club. Her voice here may be slightly deeper and slightly less supple, but for the most part she's the same singer at 50 that she had been at 20. Her backing band are restrained and unobtrusive, leaving plenty of space to show the intricacies of Bofill’s phrasing on classic ballads like “You Should Know by Now,” “Tonight I Give In,” and “Break It to Me Gently.” At the same time, they cook up a funk so convincing that this rendition of “Something About You” may return you the dance clubs of 1982. Aside from the ballads, though, the most moving performance here is the extended jam on “Angel of the Night,” a Latin-tinged celebration from early in Bofill’s career. It shows off her jazz and Cuban roots, serving as a fitting culmination for a career that would be cut short just two years later, when a stroke would leave Bofill incapacitated as a vocalist.