For those not already familiar with Faye Reis, you may be surprised to learn that her PhD in Psychology and career as a social work director has not kept her from impressive performing credits: she performed with Lou Rawls, Della Reese, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Brown, The Four Freshman, and many others; Reis opened for Milton Berle; working as “Miss Melody” of the Mickey Mouse Club; and she recorded three albums and six singles at Capitol and United Recording. This Fresno native’s most recent recording is the December 2005 release, “Simply Faye.”

On this CD, Faye is joined by Vince DiCiccio (piano; also arranger and producer), Mike Dana (guitar), Nye Frederick Morton (bass), Jim Ganduglia (drums), Ron Catalano (tenor sax, flute), and Kevin Cearley (trumpet, flugelhorm). Faye describes the songs as soft jazz – before you stop reading this, take heart, I said soft jazz, not smooth jazz! She sticks to the standards on this CD, with “It Happened in Monterey,” “It’s Alright with Me,” “You don’t know Me,” “I Concentrate on You,” “Just Friends,” “I Thought About You,” “(Call it) Stormy Monday,” “For All We Know/It’s a Blue World,” “It Don’t Mean A Thing,” “Give Me the Simple Life,” and “You Came a Long Way from St. Louis.”

If forced to pick a favorite, I’d probably pick “It’s Alright With Me,” a catchy, fast-tempo song with great soloing. I’ve always liked “It Don’t Mean A Thing,” and I especially like the interplay between the bass and Faye on this rendition. While I tend to prefer the more upbeat tracks, the ballads are great as well. “I Thought About You,” makes me wish I was sitting in a big comfy chair by some lit candles with a glass of red wine and a photo album.

Faye’s rich, passionate alto vocals and scatting are a trustworthy guide through the arrangements, at times bluesy, at times gentle, and at times invigorating.

Simply Faye is available at www.cdbaby.com for $12.97. Even better, Faye performs on Tuesday evenings with the Dew Drop Inn Jazz Band at the Silver Dollar Hofbrau. In addition to picking up her CD for $10, at her performances, you can do what I did: I got a drink and, between sips, moved my head around a lot in place of dancing, envying the crowd of people that were rather older than myself and much much better dancers.