Cabaret Setlist: “Makin’ Whoopee” – Music by Walter Donaldson, Lyrics by Gus Kahn

Mark Dundas Wood
Repertoire for the Once and Future American Songbook  Song #7 in this running series "Whoopee" on stage. Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn’s “Makin’ Whoopee,” first sung by Eddie Cantor in the 1928 musical Whoopee!—is a hardy comedic evergreen. While researching it, I was startled to discover that the person I would...

CD Review: Josie Falbo — “You Must Believe in Spring”

Gerry Geddes
 “You Must Believe in Spring” (Michel Legrand, Jacques Demy, Marilyn and Alan Bergman), the title song of Josie Falbo’s new CD, is going through a bit of renaissance at the moment.  It has appeared no less than three times on CDs I have reviewed in the last month.  But Falbo alone has the benefit of...

CD Review: Tania Grubbs Quintet — Live at Maureen’s Jazz Cellar

Lisa Jo Sagolla
An exquisitely soothing CD, Tania Grubbs Quintet: Live at Maureen’s Jazz Cellar serves up delicious jazz—of the ilk that needs to be heard again and again.  The richly textured arrangements, created by vocalist Tania Grubbs and bassist Jeff Grubbs (her husband), are so wonderfully layered that they’re only fully appreciated after multiple listenings.   Despite...

Taking Your Act Online? Resources to Up Your Tech Game

Wendy Lane Bailey
(Part One of a two-part article.) The virtual performance wave brings a need for performers to be tech savvy. As we turn our living rooms, bedrooms, and basements into performance spaces, performers find themselves having to confront the technical issues of putting together a show in an entirely different way. While dealing with technical issues...

Cabaret Setlist: “End of the World” — Music and lyrics by Matt Alber

Mark Dundas Wood
Repertoire for the Once and Future American Songbook Song #6 in this running series Part of my intention when starting this series was to take a fresh look at songs from the American Songbook that have endured over several decades. Additionally, though, I wanted to examine newer songs, ones that would seem to have an...

CD Review: Diane Schuur “Running on Faith”

Gerry Geddes
Diane Schuur (Photo: Tim Courtney) Sometime in the ‘90s, the Grammy Awards telecast decided to have all the nominees in all Jazz Vocal categories line up on the stage and join in a group rendition of “How High the Moon.”  Far stage right, last in line, was Sarah Vaughan; next to...

CD Review: Linda Lavin “Love Notes”

Gerry Geddes
Linda Lavin’s new CD, Love Notes, is a timeless collection of terrific songs from the Great American Songbook that has the feel and sound of a classic album from the '50s or '60s but with a few surprising tracks from the likes of the Eagles and Steely Dan.  Lavin sounds better than ever and the...

CD Review: Sue Anne Gershenzon’s “You Must Believe in Spring”

Gerry Geddes
Rosemary Clooney famously said, “I am not a jazz singer. I am a singer who sings jazz songs.”  On her new album, You Must Believe In Spring, Sue Anne Gershenzon has chosen a program of songs of the highest quality – there’s not a bad song among them.  Unfortunately, in her execution of them, she...

CD Review “Robbie Rozelle’s “Songs From Inside My Locker”

Gerry Geddes
Robbie Rozelle’s new album, Songs From Inside My Locker, captures his more recent show at Feinstein’s/54 Below.  While there are some good ideas and a few good numbers to be heard, the singing rarely rises above that of a decent piano bar performance and can’t sustain the length of the recording.   As with most...

On Medleys

Roy Sander
Let me open with a rather broadly stated observation: Too many people are doing too many medleys in too many shows. Now I'll narrow in and expand on this. (Perversely, and yet delightfully, this seemingly oxymoronic sentence is not self-contradictory.) By medley, I refer to any combination of more than one song. Let's start at...