Longtime Marlene VerPlanck bassist and collaborator Jay Leonhart leads a tribute featuring many of her regular bandmates and special guests. As Leonhart says, "any time Marlene missed a gig, she insisted we play without her." In fact Marlene was scheduled to perform at Birdland on February 15th before her untimely passing on January 15th, 2018, at the age of 84.
Newark native Marlene VerPlanck was a jazz and pop vocalist whose body of work centered on big band jazz, the American songbook, and cabaret. Her debut album was released in 1955 when she was 21, and featured jazz legends Hank Jones, Joe Wilder, Wendell Marshall, Kenny Clarke, and Herbie Mann. Later, she was the vocalist in big bands led by Charlie Spivak and Tommy Dorsey. VerPlanck was a prolific studio vocalist for jingles, which included singing an arrangement of the 1930s Campbell's Soup "M'm M'm Good" song.
