Rachelle Garniez opened Gone to Glory by biting off a big piece of “Killed by Death” (Motörhead: Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister, Würzel (Michael Richard Burston), Peter Gill, Philip Campbell). For the past five years, Garniez and Pangea have celebrated the legacies of recently-passed recording artists; it started in 2016 with the losses of David Bowie and Prince. […]
July turns out to be the perfect month for Feinstein’s/54 Below to book Blaine Alden Krauss in From the Soul. The fireworks started even before he hit the stage, and they did not stop until he had the crowd literally dancing in the aisles during his encore. I didn’t notice anyone actually up on a […]
Singer/curator Ben Cassara chose the perfect singer to open his Pangea Hot Summer Night Jazz Series when he chose Sheila Jordan. There is a special sense of excitement and a bit of awe when one goes to see one of the legends, and still performing at the top of her game, when one gets to […]
Fully Vaccinated tackles all the themes of the pandemic with original music (with one exception) by Darnell White, who is also the pianist, a singer, and one half of the romantic and musical duo that makes up David LaMarr and Darnell White. White is a talented player, moving from jazz to pop and theatrical easily, and he […]
Leanne Borghesi’s first major outing since the pandemic, Borghesi’s Back!, landed at Don’t Tell Mama with a big bang and a million belly laughs. This mostly fictitious pandemic memoir/travelogue still allows Borghesi to bare her heart (in character) about missing and loving what she was obviously born to do. She had a busy 2020 planned, with engagements […]
Singer Rebecca Angel’s debut recording, Love Life Choices, is in some ways, the perfect summer album, particularly for Summer 2021. Her smooth, silky, yet surprisingly resilient voice, coupled with pulsing, insinuating music, is like a cooling breeze on a sweltering day. In this case, however, that breeze contains embers of the fear, concern and pain of Covid-19. […]
In 1952, the iconic star Fred Astaire recorded a multi-album set of the classic songs he had introduced or featured over the previous decades. Norman Granz, the producer, surrounded the song & dance man with legendary musicians from Jazz at the Philharmonic, with Oscar Peterson on piano. The songs were, of course, immaculately sung, but the […]
With her sophisticated presence, the clarity of her voice, and a professional skill set that assured us that “she’s got this,” Ann Kittredge brought so much to her recent offering at the Green Room 42. Titled Fancy Meeting You Here: An Evening of Ahrens & Flaherty,” it showcased repertory from the songwriting duo’s recent Broadway […]
Showbroads—a battling-diva entertainment with Marta Sanders and Leanne Borghesi—appeared late last year at Birdland. Recently, the lively show, under the direction of Nicolas Minas, was repeated at the same venue. The evening proved to be good old-fashioned campy fun. The comic feuding of the two actor-singers never rose to a pitch that seemed especially caustic. […]
For the last few decades, Susan Werner has been delighting audiences as a singer, a songwriter, and an instrumentalist. She’s continued her string of delightful, witty, warm, and wise songs with her “NOLA project,” which, as one might surmise, spawned songs inspired by and in tribute to the historic music center New Orleans. Her recent […]