Tracklist:

1. It's Love
2. There's A Small Hotel
3. 'Deed I Do
4. I Didn't Know About You
5. Better Than Anything
6. Like A Lover
7. Blackberry Winter
8. The Snake
9. Old Boyfriends
10. How Am I To Know
11. What'll I Do
12. You For Me
13. Haunted Heart

Review
As I listened to Hilary Kole cry out the classic Irving Berlin ballad What ll I Do? at Birdland on Wednesday evening, the song seemed to flow from her like a single agonizing thought. As the prospect of being alone sank in, her composure threatened to crack and her voice rose to a near-sob before her panic subsided, replaced by quiet resignation and despair. These changes were expressed subtly in a steady emotional arc as Ms. Kole s glowing voice reined in any impulse toward hysteria.

What ll I Do? is included on Ms. Kole s forthcoming album, Haunted Heart (Justin Time Records), produced by John Pizzarelli, a sometime guest during her Birdland engagement, which runs through Saturday. She was accompanied by Tedd Firth on piano, Paul Gill on bass, Mark McLean on drums and John Hart on guitar. All except Mr. Hart play on the album.

Ms. Kole s poised, sultry ballad-singing has always been easy on the ears. But her smooth melodic lines have never been so consistently infused with literary subtext, which spells the difference between sounding pretty and having something to say. Her version of the Dietz-Schwartz ballad Haunted Heart stood apart from any other through its translation into a bossa nova, in which Mr. McLean s drums imitated the palpitations of a telltale heart. The sexy Brazilian ballad Like a Lover revolved around the singer s envious identification with a velvet moon caressing a lover s body.

In the show s up-tempo numbers, Ms. Kole demonstrated her deepening confidence as a light pop-jazz swinger who, even when she is horsing around, keeps her eye on the subject. She cozied up to The Snake, Oscar Brown Jr. s sly sexual parable in which a woman finds a half-frozen poisonous reptile by a lake, brings it home and tenderly nurses it back to health only to be bitten, then ridiculed by the object of her devotion.

Ms. Kole has performed it before, but until now had held its sarcasm at arm s length. As the song slithered to life on Wednesday, she showed she is demure no more, which is all to the good. --Stephen Holden, New York Times, Feb 13, 2009

Product Description
After years performing in the world's top venues with such jazz legends as Hank Jones and Oscar Peterson, here is Hilary Kole's debut, produced by John Pizzarelli, a jazz star in his own right, and who also serves as the album's guitarist. Together, Hilary and John have assembled 13 songs with roots in the great American songbook, but largely unknown, including Tom Waits Old Boyfriends and You For Me, best known from the late Blossom Dearie's interpretation. Here is a jazz vocalist for today!

Hilary Kole co- created and originated the lead female roles in the critically acclaimed, award winning Off-Broadway musicals, Our Sinatra (2000 MAC Award) and Singing Astaire.

Ms. Kole has been hailed by critics as a 'a musical marvel!' (Rex Reed, New York Observer.) Robert Daniels from Daily Variety said 'Kole is quite the prettiest young thrush on the club circuit...it's torch singing at its apex.'

Kole's television appearances include CNN's Showbiz Today, Fox's Good Day New York, PBS, NBC's Today in New York, as well as a half hour feature on CN8's 'One on One with Steve Adubato' in 2004.
Hilary has entertained at some of Manhattan's most prestigious events, including a Democratic Fundraiser for President Bill Clinton; an Emmy party in honor of Oprah Winfrey's Lifetime Achievement Award; the Helen Hays Awards, and as the featured entertainmer at the movie premier parties for Maid in Manhattan starring Jennifer Lopez, and Mona Lisa Smile and Stepmom starring Julia Roberts. Hilary also appeared at the 2004 Super Bowl at the Houston Astrodome