From My Heart

The tragic events of 9/11 produced their share of unexpected heroes, few more unlikely than Daniel Rodriguez, the NYPD's "singing cop." The Puerto Rican-American tenor's by now familiar rendition of "God Bless America" won over the hearts of his city, then nation--but took shots from a few cynical critics, too. Rodriguez emerged from the experience with career mentoring from no less than Placido Domingo, and this sophomore release gratifyingly proves that Rodriguez was no marketing fluke. Tellingly, the musician bookends this collection with personal tributes to the singer he obviously hopes to pattern his career after, Mario Lanza, including the unabashed romantic bluster of "Be My Love," the song Rodriguez proposed to his wife with. The singer and producer Tom Scott chart a course through a slate of familiar modern ballads and Broadway standards both old (Carousel's "If I Loved You") and new ("Only Love" and "She Was There" from The Scarlet Pimpernel). But the album's most intriguing selections are a pair of Spanish language love songs ("Jurame," "Solamente Una Vez"), recordings whose warm, sumptuous flavor seems to hint at even brighter horizons for the sturdy tenor and improbable modern American hero. --Jerry McCulley