This latest recording is a tribute to the great director and choreographer, Gower Champion, and includes songs from many of his shows, among them, "Hello, Dolly," "Annie Get Your Gun," "Irene," "Mack and Mabel" and "42nd Street." "Usually I know the people connected with the shows we've done so I have personal anecdotes I can add." says Cook, a delightful Georgian drawl creeping into her speech now and again. "But I don't remember ever meeting Gower. It's one of the reasons I did so much research and interviewed people like Bernadette Peters and Gower's longtime partner and wife, Marge Champion."

"I guess it's about three years that we've been doing Broadway songs in particular. People do respond to that with me. This is the first one that Wally (Wally Harper -- Cook's longtime accompanist ), and I have done one with only piano and bass. But people seem to love it. Maybe it's a sense of intimacy."

It's a quality Cook shares with one of her greatest idols, Judy Garland. "I was talking with Liza Minnelli once, and she was surprised to hear how much of an influence her mother had on me. Seeing "The Wizard of Oz' was an enormous event in my life, and I idolized Judy from the moment I saw it. When I came to New York in the 1950s, I heard her sing at a place called The Gold Key Club. She had this tremendous ability to communicate. You can't learn that. It's God-given. There was no barrier between her and the audience. Before she even started to sing, it was there. She had that rich emotional greatness as a child -- a certain life force that's right in your voice."

Hearing her rave about another artist, one might for a moment forget that this is an internationally acclaimed singer who is speaking. But then, there is no one who appreciates talent more than another artist. Cook played a major role in the meteoric rise of young Australian actor-singer, David Campbell, who she met in a master class she conducted "down under." This summer they will be doing a pair of concerts together at the opening of the summer Olympics in Sydney.

"And did I tell you," she continues, "New Year's Eve, we're going to be doing a concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Symphony Hall. It makes me feel good, because of all the people they could have had, they wanted me! We do have to do a little work with the rhythm section," she adds with a laugh, "But all those strings! It's GOOD!"