A Japanese singer doing songs by great American songwriters like Gershwin and Cole Porter sounds like a novel idea, but Hiromi Kanda succeeds through her excellent interpretations, and her expressive voice. Her new album, Days of Yesterday, features backing by a 50-piece orchestra recorded at the legendary Capitol Recording Studios in Hollywood. The fine arrangements by Matt Catingub help breathe new life into these treasured classics. The disc also features the great pianist Joe Sample on three of the songs.

Icon Fetch talks to the current resident of Hawaii about how she got exposed to this great music, how she won a Japanese TV contest similar to American Idol as a teen, and how she whittled down possible songs for the new record from a list of over 100.