Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" receives a stylistically distinctive interpretation on Michael Mayo's 2024 album Fly. The classic standard, from the 1939 musical Too Many Girls, is performed at approximately 161 beats per minute in the key of F with a swing feel, connecting Mayo to the long tradition of jazz vocalists interpreting the Great American Songbook. Mayo delivers a two-thirds chorus vocal improvisation over the tune's extended AABA' form of 36 bars, using his voice with the flexibility and harmonic awareness of an instrumentalist. His scatting draws on a wide palette of syllabic sounds and rhythmic devices, demonstrating the years of training and performance experience that have made him one of the most technically accomplished vocal improvisers of his generation. Unlike many contemporary jazz vocalists who either avoid scatting or treat it as an occasional embellishment, Mayo places vocal improvisation at the center of his artistic practice. The inclusion of this Rodgers and Hart standard on an album otherwise dominated by original compositions and genre-blending arrangements serves as a reminder of Mayo's deep roots in the jazz tradition, even as he pushes the boundaries of what a jazz vocal album can be.
