Dave Frishberg’s ‘Peel Me a Grape’, while eschewing the overt sensuality of, say, Diana Krall’s version, is an object lesson in allowing the succinct wit of a songwriter to shine; ‘Wild is the Wind’ sensibly takes the understated Shirley Horn (rather than the engagingly batty, grandiloquent David Bowie) route; classics such as ‘Charade’, ‘Windmills of Your Mind’ and ‘How Insensitive’ receive equally sympathetic treatment, Manly at once confiding and intense, meditative and cogent.

With a guest appearance from pianist/singer Buddy Greco on the Cahn/Van Heusen classic ‘Second Time Around’, and all the rest of the album’s fifteen tracks featuring the flawless piano accompaniment of Simon Wallace, this is an absorbing album that consistently delivers on Manly’s declared aim: ‘to use a composition to represent fully its content and poetry’.