Christine Fawson’s latest release, “It Could Happen To You” unfolds like a confident portrait of a dual-language jazz artist who sings through the horn and plays through the voice. Across 11 Great American Songbook selections, Fawson moves between warm vocal phrasing, trumpet statements, scat, and conversational small-group improvisation, making the familiar repertoire feel alert and freshly handled.
Thematically, the album sits in the classic jazz-standard territory of romance, uncertainty, heartbreak, charm, and farewell. The quartet format keeps the record nimble, and this is highlighted on “Like Someone in Love.” The interplay among the wind instruments carries the track for the most part with Fawson’s vocals weaved in for a light and enjoyable number.
The arrangements are the album’s main creative engine. The title track, “It Could Happen to You,” opens with Fawson’s trumpet before easing into her vocal delivery and solos from piano, trumpet, and bass. “It’s All Right With Me” gives space to both vocal charm and soulful trumpet playing, while “What’ll I Do” strips the texture down to a duet with Tim Ray, allowing the lyric’s loneliness to breathe.
“You Don’t Know What Love Is” seems to be the album’s boldest interpretive turn, moving from ballad feeling into a more surprising arrangement. “Oh, Lady Be Good” sounds like the showpiece: fast, playful, technically assured, and built around Fawson’s ability to blur scat and trumpet phrasing.
Recorded at PBS Studio in Westwood, Massachusetts, and mixed/mastered by Jon Chase, the production on this album is deliberately uncluttered. It favors a live, quartet-forward sound: intimate enough for ballads, clean enough for rhythmic detail, and open enough to let Fawson’s trumpet and voice occupy equal dramatic space.
Most of the songs on It Could Happen To You are deeply familiar, which is why it’s such an achievement that Fawson gives them a reason to be heard again. It approaches the Songbook with respect and ingenuity, and for listeners who enjoy straight-ahead vocal jazz with real instrumental authority, this is a warm, lively, and highly assured release.