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The American Popular Song Society, October 10, 2021: Skylark: Remembering Susannah at Don’t Tell Mama

At long last, a LIVE, in-person American Popular Song Society event! Celebrating the late Susannah McCorkle, gone now 20 years.

Excellent production by Jerry Osterberg, with performances by Danny Bacher, Gabrielle Stravelli, Mark Nadler, Aisha de Haas and Lucy Wijnands, with Susannah’s pianist and musical director Allen Farnham providing the accompaniment for all but Mark.

This was meant to be a livestreamed and videotaped performance, in addition to the live audience at Don’t Tell Mama for the monthly event. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, there’s no video and no photos available. So you had to be there.

Here’s my write-up:

I only encountered Susannah McCorkle once, well before I even knew about the cabaret scene, at an event at the 42nd Street Automat produced by WNEW-1130 radio sometime in the early 1980s. Jonathan Schwartz played her regularly. Her rendition at the event was the first time I’d ever heard anyone sing “Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year.”

It was quite a coup for Jerry Osterberg to get Allen Farnham, who is currently in the pit for The Lion King on Broadway, as the musical director and accompanist today. He had to leave early for that show.

Danny Bacher is a funny and talented singer and master of the soprano sax (or as Jerry called it, a flute). Danny likes to throw in funny little asides in the songs. He started the verse to Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s “Accentuate the Positive”, singing “Gather ‘round me, everybody…. But not too close.” On “You Go To My Head,” with a bossa beat, he sang, “So I say to myself…. Self?” He brought up Lucy Wijnand for a duet on Johnny Mercer’s “At the Jazz Band Ball,” then finished with Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “How Insensitive,” with Lucy on vocal. Lucy is a fresh-faced young woman whose voice is reminiscent of Sarah Vaughn when she uses her lower register. I learned later that, to no surprise, Vaughn is a big influence on Lucy. A lovely “I’ll Take Romance” (Ben Oakland/Oscar Hammerstein II) had a light swinging rhythm with a bridge played as a waltz. Lucy introduced Rodgers & Hart’s humorous “I Wish I Were In Love Again” with the rarely sung verse, and finished big.

Gabrielle Stravelli is always a delight. She sings with a twinkle in her eyes, radiating joy as she masterfully sings and swings. Gabrielle sang the verse to Gershwin’s “They All Laughed,” which I’d never heard before, then taking us on a fun adventure with her versatile voice.

Gabrielle shared that the first jazz standard she’d ever been introduced to was “Skylark” (Hoagy Carmichael/Johnny Mercer), and sang the ballad beautifully. She ended her set with the funny Dave Frishberg song “My Attorney Bernie.”

Broadway and jazz artist Aisha de Haas was another great get by Jerry. She sang a sultry “Lover Man” (Jimmy Davis/Roger Ramirez/James Sherman). She sang a song she first learned from the record her aunt (Geraldine Bey) made with her group, the Bey Sisters, “Every Time We Say Goodbye” (Cole Porter), with the verse. The line “How great the change from major to minor,” one of my favorite phrases from any song, felt especially poignant in her hands.

Aisha finished her set with the jazziest song of the show, Cole Porter’s “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To.”

Danny and Lucy returned for a great old-school duet on “Thanks For The Memory” (Ralph Rainger/Leo Robin), after which Farnham had to dash off to The Lion King.

The final artist was Mark Nadler, who shared with us that Susannah was one of his closest friends. He became visibly choked up speaking about her. He made it clear how fun she was to be with, and that in their first encounter, Susannah, then writing an article about Irving Berlin for American Heritage, found Mark at a show and asked him, “Why is Irving Berlin indispensable to you?”

Mark is a great showman with considerable ability. For Irving Berlin’s “Isn’t This A Lovely Day,” he made the piano sound like it was raining while singing “Let the rain pitter-patter.” He brought back Gabrielle Stravelli for an adorable duet of “Two Sleepy People,” infusing great humor through their bon mots, phrasing and body language, turning the lovely couple of the song into what might be described as “two creepy people” who smile at one another through clenched teeth.

Mark played Billy Strayhorn’s “Something to Live For,” which had erroneously been credited to Ervin Drake in the program. “How thrilled would Edith have been to know she was married to a short, black, gay man?”

For the final number of the program, Mark recreated Susannah McCorkle’s arrangement of “There’s No Business Like Show Business” (Irving Berlin). Normally a fast, happy tune that glamorizes even the hard parts of show business, here it is a tour de force of tragedy and irony, pathos and tears, with the song becoming a metaphor for surviving failure. From its rubato opening to the big finish that let us know it’s going to be okay, and let’s go on with the show, Mark’s stunning, dramatic interpretation of Susannah’s arrangement was simply spectacular.

Bravo, brava, bravissimo, bravissima…. Fini!


The American Popular Song Society
Skylark: Remembering Susannah
Don’t Tell Mama
343 West 46th Street, NYC

Marissa Mulder: Souvenirs, A Tribute to the Songs of John Prine

October 3, 2021

Marissa Mulder returned to Birdland Theater for her in-person show since February 2020. With Jon Weber as her pianist and musical director, and Mike Rosengarten on guitar, Marissa presented the music and story of John Prine, the Grammy-winning singer/songwriter who was an early victim of COVID-19 in 2020. Marissa, a luminous strawberry blonde who radiates her joy in her singing as with everything she does, was in fine voice, interpreting Prine’s songs with great skill and feeling. Marissa, whose specialty is theme shows written around the deep-dive material of heralded singer-songwriters whose names are more well-known than their catalog, like Tom Waits, and new interpretations of Lennon and McCartney songs, brought that same approach to giving a virtual Master Class in John Prine, who had a knack for writing deep and whimsical songs that were especially acclaimed by other songwriters, such Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan and the late Nancy Griffith. Marissa has a gentle, nearly girlish sound that is often compared to that of the late Blossom Dearie, and is perfect for the material. The arrangements of these deceptively simple songs were terrific, with Weber and Rosengarten creating just the right melodic lines and tension for the material while allowing Marissa to shine.

Marissa opened with “Paradise,” the first song he sang to his father. Her own father was in the house.

𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑦 𝑤𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑚𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑡𝑜 𝑀𝑢ℎ𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑔 𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑦
𝐷𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑏𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑅𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑙𝑎𝑦
𝑊𝑒𝑙𝑙, 𝐼’𝑚 𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑦 𝑚𝑦 𝑠𝑜𝑛, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢’𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑜 𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑎𝑠𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔
𝑀𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑃𝑒𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦’𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛 ℎ𝑎𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑢𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑡 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑦

“Souvenirs,” the show’s title song, was a tune Prine always dedicated to his brother, even singing the song to his dying brother on his deathbed. Some of Prine’s best material was written when he was a postal carrier in Mayberry, Illinois. He made his big break after film critic Roger Ebert caught his show entirely by chance and wrote about the “Singing Mailman.” Marissa’s family was in attendance from Syracuse, and she apologized to her dad from the stage after quoting Prine’s “F bomb” before launching into his “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore.”

For “Sam Stone,” Weber and Rosengarten, using ringing harmonic tones, created a delicate backdrop for Marissa to deliver a powerful message as relevant in the aftermath of the Afghanistan conflict as it was when our troops came home from Vietnam. The question asked, really, is “For what?” We learned that Johnny Cash changed the controversial phrase that “Jesus died for nothing” when he recorded the song, something Prine said was really the entire point. On “Speed of “The Sound of Loneliness,” Marissa was at her most vulnerable. With just Rosengarten providing a fingerpicked guitar, Marissa inhabits the song and its sorrow.

When was the last time you heard a song about a boy and an elephant? “Sabu Visits the Twin Cities Alone,” about a former child star whose career reached its zenith with his first film, “Elephant Boy.” The song is at once poignant and funny, with lines like “𝑆𝑎𝑏𝑢 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑎𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑛𝑘. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑖𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑡’𝑠 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑛𝑘.”

Marissa followed “Sabu” with another very clever song, “Dear Abby” is a collection of letters to Dear Abby and her responses (all written by Prine). Marissa was delightful singing lyrics like “𝑆𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑒𝑑, 𝐵𝑒𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑,” and informed us after the song that someone sent one of the stanzas to the actual “Dear Abby,” who wrote that the writer clearly needed a psychiatrist.

Marissa sweetly sang “Angel From Montgomery,” most famously covered by Bonnie Raitt, who said that Prine was “probably the closest thing for those of us that didn’t get the blessing of seeing Mark Twain in person.”

After telling a funny story about Prine’s goldfish that he loved so much he had it mounted, Marissa performed Prine’s uptempo song, “Please Don’t Bury Me,” about his own imagined death, recorded 20 years before. “𝑃𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑏𝑢𝑟𝑦 𝑚𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑, 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑛. 𝐼’𝑑 𝑟𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑐𝑢𝑡 𝑚𝑒 𝑢𝑝 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑.” The humorous lyrics took on a bittersweet poignancy, now that Prine is really gone. This would have been her final song, but Marissa performed an encore on “In Spite of Ourselves,” with just Mike Rosengard on guitar. It was a terrific cap to a delightful show.

Marissa Mulder
Souvenirs, A Tribute to the Songs of John Prine 
Birdland Theater
315 West 44th Street, NYC

Rob Kevlin at Feinsteins/54 Below: Silver Screen Serenade

Rob Kevlin is a young man with a fine, powerful lyric baritone. At 54 Below on September 24, 2021, Kevlin presented his Silver Screen Serenade. Rob was supported by a trio of excellent musicians, led by musical director and pianist Yaron Gershovsky (the longtime musical director and accompanist for The Manhattan Transfer), along with Boris Kozlov on bass and Clint de Ganon on drums.

Kevlin entered the Feinstein’s stage in a flashy blue jacket with black shirt and slacks, and a white Panama hat, which he removed after the opening medley of “Sway” and “Besame Mucho.” He presented a series of songs whose only connection was that they were introduced or used in movies. The monitors on either side of the stage were used to good effect to present still shots and clips from the movies he referenced. With little in the way of patter or personal stories to let the audience know his connection to the music, or to really get a sense of Kevlin outside of his songs, the show felt to be more of a Las Vegas lounge show than an intimate cabaret.

Kevlin sang “Can’t Help Falling In Love” from the Elvis Presley movie “Blue Hawaii.” After rocking it on “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” which was used in the Queen biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody,” he performed Peggy Lee’s “Fever,” which he did not mention was also a big hit for Elvis. He really showed his vocal prowess on “Somewhere” from West Side Story, which made the most of his classically trained voice. Perhaps Kevlin’s strongest piece was “If I Were a Rich Man,” from “Fiddler On the Roof.” Here, he got a little more personal, telling us it was the song he sang at his bar mitzvah. He encouraged the audience to join him on parts, which lifted the energy in the room.Some choices were puzzling. Rob introduced two “Sinatra songs” as if they came from Sinatra movies. Frank Sinatra did introduce many songs in his films, some written expressly for him. Here, Kevlin performed “The Way You Look Tonight” and “New York, New York,” with arrangements similar to the Sinatra hit records. However, these are not Sinatra movie songs at all, but songs introduced by Fred Astaire in “Swing Time” (1936) and Liza Minelli in “New York, New York” (1977), respectively.

Closing with “The Prayer” and “This is Me,” Kevlin showed that he has power and range, and can also sing with sensitivity.

Kevlin is of Russian heritage, with a Russian-born wife, and brought a large contingent of his Russian family with him. Perhaps because of this influence, Kevlin has what sounds like a tinge of a Russian accent when he sings, though not when he speaks. He has the talent. With a good show director to steer him, his future shows may reach the hearts, as well as the ears, of his audience.


Rob Kevlin
Silver Screen Serenade
Feinsteins/54 Below
254 West 54th Street, NYC

It’s time to replace CitiBike

It’s time to open bike share to other companies.  CitiBike/Lyft does not deserve to keep this monopoly.  CitiBike is supposed to both augment and sometimes replace certain modes of transportation, rather than have their specialized bikes be used as recreational bikes that compete with bike rental companies.  While it’s great when it works, it fails miserably at this far more often than it succeeds.  Let’s compare it to taking a bus, which is probably the closest comparison.

Imagine if you took on buses for transportation, but you could never rely on them for these reasons:

  • The buses are all broken down in your neighborhood, so you have to find another means of transportation.
  • The buses show up, but the OMNY and other means of paying for your fare are out, so you can’t take the bus.
  • The bus shows up at your stop, won’t open its doors, and pulls away.
  • They constantly run out of buses during scheduled hours and you have to walk too far to a stop that has them, and then you have some of the other problems.
  • You get off the bus properly, but you keep getting charged for the ride and have to call to get this fixed.
  • One out of three buses has a mechanical issue, and sometimes you have to get off and change buses.  One of those three times you can’t get another bus and have to walk to another stop five blocks away.
  • Some neighborhoods get well taken care of by volunteers replacing the buses, while others have to wait until the next day.
  • Your daily stop is moved without warning, and you have to figure out where it went.

Bottom line:  CitiBike works like the bus system I described above.  CitiBike is broken.  They keep expanding, but do not have the means, the wherewithal or otherwise take responsibility for keeping the bikes balanced and maintained.  The stations take up valuable real estate, which is fine if this worked, but, as Rosanne Rosannadanna used to say, it’s always something.  In this past week alone:

  • Every single afternoon, the station opposite my building goes devoid of all bikes by 5 pm, for several hours.
  • In one ride alone, I switched bikes three times due to faulty pedals, bad brakes, bad pedals, and a wobbly front fork that made me feel unsafe.  The QR code was missing from one of them.  Two of the three times, I had to try multiple empty docks until I found one that wasn’t completely dead.
  • Today, I found the only bike at my station.  I rode up the .6 miles to my destination and properly docked my bike.  When I returned for another bike, I discovered my ride was still continuing.  I had to call customer support to have them manually end the ride.  Then I discovered that the entire station was broken, and not a single bike could be undocked.  There was no bike available within half a mile, so I walked home with a package in high heat.

Enough!  For $179 a year ($15 a month), I expect more.  I expect a working system that works most of the time, if not all.  I expect that the same consideration is given to my neighborhood as to some in midtown that get concierge service and a constant replenishment of bikes.  There’s only one reason this really is happening, and that’s that CitiBike/Lyft is a monopoly in New York.  There is no or little competition.  It is a closed system, not open to other companies that might be better funded or better organized.  No competition disincentivizes companies like this from improving their service. 

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.

The Song is You

I started my night at the National Arts Club to see Bill Boggs interview Will Friedwald on the occasion of the third edition of Friedwald’s seminal book on Frank Sinatra’s records, “The Song is You.”  This is a gorgeous building on Gramercy Park, next to the Players Club.  It’s an old-fashioned membership club, a bit staid, with a mostly older member base.  There’s art everywhere, old and new.  The Explorer’s Club is also a few doors away.  Theodore Roosevelt’s childhood home is down the block – Roosevelt was a member of the National Arts Club, as well as the Explorer’s Club.  A few friends were in attendance. 

The men interspersed video and film clips of Sinatra, including a segment of Bill Boggs’ own 1975 interview of Sinatra, and entertained questions from the audience.  There was a “bobbysoxer” in attendance, who told of her cutting school to see Sinatra at the Paramount in 1942.  She told me she was 14, which would make her 91 today. 

My friend Jonathan Smith, known around town for his Stan Lauren impersonations, suggested we head over to Swing 46 to bid singer Sarah Hayes a bon voyage.  Sarah is about to embark on a three-month cruise.  We got there, but no sign of Sarah.  I texted her and discovered she was at Flute, a Champagne bar on 54th Street, where our friend Ellen Bullinger was singing, and “all the girls” were there.  So off we went.  There, I found Ellen singing with two of my favorite musicians, Kerry MacKillop on flugelhorn and Ron Jackson on seven-string guitar.  Several friends sat in to sing.  I was a bit too late, so not this time. 

A musical smorgasbord to end a helluva week in New York

On Saturday, June 8th, I had tickets to see my friends Eric Comstock and his wife Barbara Fasano at Birdland. It was a beautiful day, so I biked down to Birdland, even though I was meeting a date there, the lovely Lara. I got there early, and the club kindly allowed me to put my folding bike backstage. By the time Lara came, I was cleaned up pretty nicely with a summery jacket and tie, dress shirt and shoes, and a summer hat. My pal Will Friedwald came, but sat behind us with our friend David Rosen, who takes some of the best photos you’ll ever see of New York nightlife. David also has a Brompton, after years of riding a recumbent, but parks his outside.

Eric was in fine form tonight both on piano and vocally. He played with bassist Sean Smith, and later his wife came out for a set. Eric is quite knowledgeable about the music he sings, and offered wonderful stories about the songs, most of which were new to me. We had terrific seats, and had dinner there.

As luck would have it. there was a show downstairs starting just as Eric and Barbara’s show was ending. “Old Friends,” a set piece with Clint Holmes, Veronica Swift, and Nicholas King, with a top-notch five-piece band behind them, led by the outstanding accompanist and musical director Tedd Firth. Tom Hubbard on the bass. I had wanted to see this for awhile. I asked Gianni Valenti, the owner of the club, if I could see the show (without paying a second cover). This is where it really pays to be a regular and to befriend the owner, because he kindly invited Lara and I to sit at the table next to him near the door downstairs, on the house. Thanks, Gianni!

If you haven’t yet seen or heard of Veronica Swift, you will. She’s a dear friend of mine. She only turned 25 last month. She’s one of the best singers of jazz I’ve ever heard. “Bebop lives here” is her motto. She grew up with this music all around her — her mother, Stephanie Nakasian, is also a terrific singer who sang with the likes of Jon Hendricks. Her father, the late Hod O’Brien, was a renowned jazz pianist. Veronica is well-trained at the conservatory level — she can sing opera as well as jazz standards — and has a magnificent instrument and what I’d describe as otherworldly skills to play with impossible modulations, sans reference notes. She scats as well as anyone I’ve heard (including her idol Anita O’Day and mine, Ella Fitzgerald). Here was a chance to hear her show off many other vocal sides, and even some acting chops.

The show struck me as a “Manhattan Tower for the 2000’s” — all but one song an original for the show, and it told a story, with many Manhattan references in the lyrics. The three stars played together like, well, old friends — and I hope this show gets bigger!

After the show, while speaking with the stars, I mentioned a particular friend of mine, Roy, who has spectacular parties with jam sessions. I’d gotten Veronica and Will into one of these. I’d also met the cabaret star Jamie deRoy at one, and she was there tonight. Seconds after mentioning these parties to Jamie, my friend messaged me out of the blue, asking if I’d like to come jam at his new home. I invited Lara to join me, and scooted to the upper west side (took the bike on the train), where I spent the remainder of Saturday night with Roy on piano and his friend Alvin on sax, with iRealPro backing tracks, on a stage in Roy’s home. Yes, a stage. Roy has a bunch of guitars and other instruments, so it was fine that I didn’t just happen to have one with me. It was challenging — they played things like Coltrane, Miles Davis and other jazz standards — I have a great ear and good instincts, but I don’t actually play “jazz” per se — still, I was able to find chords and leads that suited the music.

A good week for The Boulevardier!

A helluva week in New York – part 1

Monday, June 3rd, was something else. First was the Taste of Times Square street party on 46th Street. As always, my home base was Swing 46, where the George Gee Orchestra played and my friend Sarah Hayes sang. Sarah is about to go off on a three-month cruise, so I may not see her until the fall.

Then it was off to Birdland. First, I saw a terrific show by Broadwsay/cabaret star Melissa Errico downstairs at the Birdland Theater. I had to leave early, however, as my main reason for being at Birdland was Jim Caruso’s Cast Party. If you haven’t yet been to this, it’s one of the best things in New York. For some eighteen years, Jim Caruso has had an ongoing open mic event every Monday night, where “some of the most talented people in the world will perform…. also other people.” The great Billy Stritch accompanies everyone on the piano, along with Steve Doyle on bass and Daniel Glass on drums. On this particular, night, there were no duds. My dear friend Susie Clausen, surely my female counterpart as a Boulevardier of New York (when she’s not home in California), made her world debut on a stage, playing the sax and singing on “Hey Big Spender,” having been personally coached by the legendary Marilyn Maye, who came both to cheer Susie on and to sing a song herself. At 91, she’s nothing short of indomitable, selling out entire runs at Feinstein’s/54 Below, no easy feat for anyone. Susie’s song was a blast. She’s only playing sax for a few years, and singing for only a few months (at Marilyn Maye’s insistence). Susie has the kind of appeal that makes everyone adore her instantly., from the club owners down to the busboys. What she lacks in chops is more than made up for by her vivacious persona, authenticity, and her beauty.

Clint Holmes, remembered by most for his 1972 hit “Playground In My Mind” (“My Name is Michael…”), is today a renowned jazz singer with a wonderful voice. He sang. Marilyn sang. The wonderful entertainer Susie Mosher (who hosts a weekly show called The Lineup every Tuesday at the Birdland Theater) sang. A number of other singers, most of whom I know personally, sang. And oh yes, I sang. This was my seventh time at Cast Party. I tend to play more fun numbers or even novelty bits at this show, because of the “party” nature. (“No ballads!”) Four of the first six times I played ukulele as well as sang, and once I played guitar. On this occasion, I decided to sing jazz in a jazz club. I sang the Cole Porter classic, “What Is This Thing Called Love,” singing the song through in rubato before swinging it, and ending it with a powerful note. I got major kudos from Jim Caruso, Susie Mother, Clint Holmes, and most importantly, Marilyn Maye, who passed along some notes to Susie Clausen for me, since I’m also one of Marilyn’s students.

I’ll continue this week in separate posts.

Parnell’s Pub – June 6th

This was my fourth appearance at Parnell’s as the “Spotlight Singer” on their open mic night, which is Thursday. On this night, pianist Bill Zeffiro plays for everyone. Bill is often mistaken for me and the other way around — we’re the same age within three months, are shaved-headed, wear fedoras and love Sinatra, but he’s Italian and I’m Jewish… go figure.

I get a dozen songs at this gig, six songs in two sets. I make it a point to play mostly different songs each gig, so that anyone coming to see me more than once won’t have heard my set before. There might be one or two repeats, usually if I feel I didn’t nail it the previous time. I know hundreds of songs, so why stick to a handful?

The night was fairly successful, with over 25 people coming to see me, plus a few who were there anyway. I had a couple of Broadway people who came — Loren and Kelly Lester, both successful. Loren is about to hit the road starring in “The Band’s Visit” for the next year. It was quite an honor for them to show up. Loren got them go give me a seventh song. I played guitar and ukulele in the second set, including one number where I played guitar without Bill on piano. A friend of mine from grade school came well after I was done, and after my friends left. Bill kindly invited me to sing a song for her.

Best part — Brian, the owner, who is a fan, told me to talk to Cheryl, who books the talent, to get booked for a Saturday gig. So I’ll be there September 28th, a Saturday. I have to supply the pianist (paid for by the club) but this means I’ll get to control the night, and sing many more songs. #Winning!