Happy Friday, everyone!
It's been a busy week, but I've managed to squeeze in some great entertainment! On Saturday, February 21, I made it in just under the wire to catch Tony DeSare's last night at the Oak Room with his new show Mercer, Moon River and Me. I've been a fan of Tony's for a few years now, since the first time I heard him perform at Cast Party. He's hands down one of the most talented people I know - not only is he an outstanding pianist, he's also a terrific singer and songwriter...and overall, just an excellent entertainer! For this show, he was accompanied by Steve Doyle on bass and Edward Decker on guitar, and what a trio they made! The arrangements were interesting and exciting, but never distracted from the original intent of the songs. Obviously, a great deal of the Johnny Mercer songbook was covered (including old favorites like "That Old Black Magic," "Something's Gotta Give" and -of course- "Moon River"), which took care of the "Mercer" and "Moon River" parts of the title of the show. The "Me" came in when Tony did a few of his original tunes, "A Little Bit Closer," and "Dreaming My Life Away" (which he cleverly paired with Mercer's "Dream"), both of which can be heard on his newly-released CD, Radio Show. I had a thoroughly enjoyable time, and although I'd be hard-put to pick out the best moments of the show, two of my favorites came during "Autumn Leaves," which Tony did as a piano solo (seriously, my jaw literally dropped - I can't even THINK as fast as he moves his fingers!) with multiple amazing variations, and "One For My Baby," for which he stepped out from behind the piano and plaintively sang the song to quiet accompaniment from Edward Decker on the guitar. The lights dimmed, and the simple arrangement completely captured the loneliness of the character in the song. Overall, it was a terrific show - can't wait to catch him again the next time he's got a gig in town!
The following night, I headed over to the Metropolitan Room to catch Anne Steele in her show, Strings Attached. Anne was the winner of last summer's Metro Star contest, which pitted scores of singers against each other in hopes of winning the grand prize - a fully produced 5-show run at the Metropolitan Room (including director, musical director, professional recording, etc.) - and this show was her prize! Skillfully directed by Lennie Watts, with musical direction by Kenny Davidsen, the show featured a quartet of string instruments (piano, bass, cello & violin) playing terrific arrangements of an eclectic mix of songs - mostly pop, with a few standards thrown in for good measure. Anne delivered a high-energy performance, from her opening, room-rockin' "Don't Stop Me Now" to her encore, "Smile" and the audience was behind her all the way, whooping and shouting and giving her some great energy from which to feed. Stearns Matthews, the runner-up in the competition, opened for Anne with three songs, including that perennial favorite "Rubber Duckie." He sounded terrific and did a great job of charming the audience and getting them pumped for the show! After that, it was off to catch the rest of the Oscars (considering I didn't see ANY movies last year, it wasn't that big a deal to me, but I do like to see what people are wearing)!
On Monday night, it was off to Jim Caruso's Cast Party at Birdland, as usual! Jim was in particularly rare form - he's always entertaining and always funny, but the humor was razor-sharp this week, and I found myself nearly snorting sometimes, which could have been embarrassing...but luckily I caught myself in time! And the TALENT - wow, there were some amazing people there this week! In addition to some of my favorite regulars (like folk diva Christine Lavin who treated us to a brilliant and funny new song, "Trading Up"), Clint & Kelly Holmes wowed everyone with their vocals (and Kelly actually did a Christine Lavin song!), Paige Davis (of TV's Trading Spaces), treated us to a fab "Maybe This Time," and singer/songwriter Tom Leopold (who wrote for Seinfeld and Cheers, among other sitcoms!) shared a great new tune. To wrap it all up, Birdland songbird Melissa Ward did a swingin' "It's Only A Paper Moon," and was joined by the aforementioned Clint Holmes on backup vocals (and he also did an amazing scat solo), Jonno Gasparo on trumpet, and Jim Caruso himself on vocals - so it turned into a big ol' jam-fest, which was a blast!
