With her new release, "Hallelujah, I Just Love Him So," the jazz singer Marsha Bartenetti slips into the warmth of a cherished song and performs that radiant, heart-filled tune in a way that's both reverent and refreshingly hers alone.
This is a master class in vocal interpretation. From the very opening of the track, Bartenetti's voice envelopes the melody like velvet, a classic jazz club glow but with the pulse of the now. Her phrasing is graceful, exact, and uncomfortably personal, and every note is an understood act, with every rest a continuous conversation.
There's an unassailable joy in the way she sings this song. While the song is called a declaration of love, Bartenetti treats it as a celebration of life, connection, and music. It's in the way she picks the melody up just that little bit at the chorus, the smile you can hear sandwiched between the verses. And that joy is infectious.
As an instrumental, the track is tasteful and taut. The arrangement is silky smooth, swinging gently with a groove that feels loose enough for your foot to tap along to but not so much that Bartenetti's voice isn't front and center stage. A hot horn section and taut rhythm support pump up this jazz base without detracting from the vocals, finding a lean mean between sophistication and soul.
"Hallelujah, I Just Love Him So" is fascinating because it's the feeling. It's all in the sincerity of her delivery as if making it personal, an act that lets us peer into her own story even as she pays tribute to the classic, legendary original.
It is a breath of old, musky air in a time of fast fashion and ephemeral fads. With this release, Marshall Bartenetti demonstrates that timeless music does not exist alone in the past but in its purveyors, who boldly bring it forward with love and style. "Hallelujah, I Just Love Him So" is a love letter to a time, a genre, and a sentiment that never goes out of style.
Follow Marsha Bartenetti on Spotify
Reviewed by LyricalOdyssey Music
on
June 05, 2025
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