Culled from a three-night run at Birdland in May 1997, Ain't Necessarily So captures the pianist/vocalist on the cusp of a transition. The booking came on the heels of Ballads, Blues And Bey, a solo recital on which Bey, then 57, primarily known for the power and rhythmic snap of his soulful baritone, complemented his supple, multitextured instrument with a startling array of free-flowing piano voicings and harmonic colors. In doing so, Bey revealed himself to the broader public as an A-list crooner, whose approach to the jazz songbook could be mentioned in the same sentence as similarly silkvoiced antecedents Billy Eckstine and Nat Cole. A year later, Shades Of Bey launched a trilogy of more elaborately produced studio albums.

On the seven tunes that comprise the vocal component of Ain't Necessarily So ("If I Should Lose You" is an instrumental), Bey renders the many vocal colors at his disposal with authority. He offers pitch-perfect registral juxtapositions on "I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart" and gospelized, quasi-operatic grandeur on "Hey, Love." He brings forth dynamic contrasts on "On Second Thought," conversationally intimate at one moment, bellowing the next, resolving with a held note of seemingly impossible length. Any quibbles with his interpretations speak less to their quality or intent than to the particulars of the listener's own taste.

Said quibbles do arise, however, when Bey, responding to the heat of the moment, bestows his gifts with more bountiful largesse than the lyrics can handle. Thus, he sings "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?' as a brisk stomp. He syncopates the words with over-the-barline, catand-mouse phrasing, morphs to a cogently scatted shout chorus and concludes with a sermonlike declamation over a vamp. He applies unrelentingly mannered melismas and arpeggios-immaculately executed-to the syllables of "Ain't Necessarily So."

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