Month: July 2021

Friday night in New York

Friday night was a night of contrasts.  I started the evening with three friends to see “Laura Fay and Undercover” at The Cutting Room on this Friday, July 17, 2021.

The Cutting Room recently reopened since the Covid pandemic shut down New York nightlife.  Initially opening without food, on this night the kitchen was open, albeit with a limited menu.  Pre-show, I had their excellent cheeseburger.  

“Laura Fay and Undercover” was the opening act for “The Fopps.”  I came to hear Laura Fay and her band, which consisted of Laura Fay Lewis on vocals, her husband Carlo Dano on guitar, John Keim on keyboard, Mike Schoffel on bass, and Graham Clarke on drums.  They played a reasonably tight set, though Laura Fay had a music stand with lyrics that she sometimes read from. 

Laura Fay told me later that she handpicked and curated the songs to fit her eclectic tastes in rock.  And eclectic it was, with the band covering classic rock, blues and soul songs, staying faithful to the spirit of the originals without copying them.  The band opened with “Heroes,” written by David Bowie and Brian Eno.  They then did the soulful “Chain of Fools” by Aretha Franklin.  The third song was a fun surprise.  Laura Fay spoke to the crowd.  “You can have my husband….,” to which someone in the audience yelled out “He’s right behind you!”  She then went into “You Can Have My Husband (But Don’t Mess With My Man),” written by Dorothy LaBostrie in 1959 and introduced by Irma Thomas that year.  This was a great, old-school blues number, and Carlo Dano played some excellent lead guitar here.  The band performed the Paul Rodgers tribute song “Muddy Waters Blues,” followed by Queen Emily’s “Keep Getting’ Up.”  Next the band played the R&B hit “Wishing Well” by Terence Trent D’Arby and the rock ballad “Breathe“ by  Pink Floyd. 

The next two songs were a bit of an Eric Clapton mini-set.  The classic rock “Let It Rain” by Clapton and Bonnie Bramlett of Delaney and Bonnie was followed by The Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” which famously featured Clapton on lead guitar, though Dano did not attempt to copy Clapton’s famous solos.

This was followed by “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” a 1967 Traffic song by Steve Winwood and Chris Wood.

For their “encore” (they skipped the usual walking-off trope and just went into it after thanking everyone for coming), the band launched into a rocking rendition of the Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin Jack Flash.”  This is one of those songs that everyone knows from the first beats of the drums and cowbell.  They finished with the great T. Rex song “Bang a Gong” (aka “Get It On”).  

I stayed for most of The Fopps’ set.  They were a cover band of older rockers, kind of a “Cowsills with edge.”  The band performed mainly 60s and 70s songs with lots of harmonies, some of which didn’t quite come together.  They shared the keyboard player, John Keim, who changed outfits and wore a fedora for this set. 

At this point, my growing group (we were now eight) left for Swing 46, where we caught the last couple of sets of “Professor Cunningham’s” swing quintet, led by the great reed player and singer Adrian Cunningham. I pooped out early for me, and left before midnight.

Eve Marie Shahoian at Don’t Tell Mama, July 15, 2021

 

 Eve Marie Shahoian is a woman who is simultaneously a newcomer and an old hand. She was a child star who made her debut singing opera at age 8 on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and who toured with Liberace. She had long ago put away her show biz trunk in favor of marriage and motherhood, but in recent years, with her kids grown, Eve Marie has returned to performing. She first played New York several years ago with shows at The Green Room 42 and Birdland Theater. (I had a guest spot in the Birdland show two years ago this month.)

The show was entitled “Take Me to The World,” though there wasn’t an apparent thread to the song choices, with Eve Marie singing from several distinct genres of the American Popular Songbook, from Gershwin to Sondheim, and several excellent pop ballads written by Eve Marie herself. The songs showed off Eve Marie’s versatility of singing standards from as early as the 1920’s and 30’s, show tunes and movie songs from the 60s and 70s, and songs from recent years, as well as her own modern love songs.

Eve Marie was accompanied by her musical director, Jon Weber, one of the best accompanists in the business, known for his eidetic memory of music and musical trivia as much as for his first-rate chops and interpretative abilities. She opened she show with an uptempo arrangement of Irving Berlin’s 1926 “Blue Skies,” one of the most covered songs in history. Eve Marie then moved forward to the 1971 “Pure Imagination,” the Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse song from “Willie Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.” The song was performed as a ballad, though it briefly switched to a breezy jazz tempo for a couple of measures towards the end of the song.

A deft medley of “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” “When You’re Smiling” and “What a Wonderful World” showed off Eve Marie’s range as a balladeer and jazz stylist. These songs were written in 1930, 1928 and 1967, respectively. Jon Weber, known as a walking Wikipedia of music and birthdays, didn’t let us down here, pointing out that it was the 117th birthday of lyricist Dorothy Fields, who wrote the first song of the medley.

At this point, Eve Marie briefly told her story of achieving her very early childhood goal of singing on television and leaving entertainment to raise a family. Eve Marie then introduced two of her original songs, “Waiting for You,” which was on two of her albums and received a Billboard Award, and “If You Were a Melody,” a pop ballad dedicated to her children, one of whom was in attendance.

Singing a capella is a skill not every singer has. For the 1929 “More Than You Know,” Eve Marie sang the entirety of the double verse sans accompaniment. Her rendition of Caro Emerald’s 2010 light swing tune “That Man” was quite a bit of fun, with Jon Weber playing “body percussion,” using his hands and abdomen in place of a drum.

Eve Marie then brought up her special guest, the acclaimed jazz and cabaret singer Nicolas King, for a duet and two solo numbers. Eve Marie and Nick have in common the rather unusual credits of being childhood stars who were both on The Tonight Show at age 8 (Nick with Jay Leno). Nick came singing from his seat in the audience to join Eve Marie on stage for their duet on the 1932 Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler classic “I’ve Got The World on a String.” Nick followed with a two-song set, first with Sondheim’s “Children Will Listen” from “Into the Woods,” then James Taylor’s 1977 “Secret of Life.” Nick has extraordinary jazz chops and voice control, and the ability to deliver a song in an intimate cabaret room that can only be gained from years of experience, made all the more impressive by his youth, at only 32 years of age.
 Eve Marie returned with Stephen Sondheim’s haunting “I Remember,” beautifully sung and with great emotional connection to the material. To close her show, she sang George and Ira Gershwin’s 1926 “Someone to Watch Over Me,” including the verse, which is not always heard, and then “Thank You For The Music,” the ABBA song from “Mama Mia,” the lyrics to which could be her life story.
 Eve Maria Shahoian has a beautiful voice and the ability to sing pop, jazz and opera – she showed off her opera skills here and there, almost to let the audience in on the fact that she can exercise that option at any time, if needed. If she has any weak spots at the moment, it’s in her command of the stage and her occasional attempts at scat singing. The scatting came across as a bit of “scat by numbers.” Some of the best scat singers often have the entirety of their scat planned out, but are so adept that you’re certain they’re creating this on the spot. Her stage presence at the outset was slightly undermined by a bit of tentativeness, possibly due to the small and spread-out audience in the larger room at Don’t Tell Mama. This shifted the moment she opened her mouth and shared her gift. However, she has nothing to not be confident about. She has all the skills and experience that will make for a successful second career in entertainment as she moves forward.