It is always exciting to come across a new recording that is filled with surprising song choices from surprising sources delivered by a singer who covers them with a passion, intelligence and the personal phrasing of a singer-songwriter delivering his own material. That is what I discovered in Why Go?, the new release by Allen […]
Sometimes listening to the repertoire featured on a recording can be like slipping into a favorite old coat; the coat is well-made and provides comfort, warmth, and a dash of elegance, with few surprises other than in the quality of the craftsmanship. Wild is the Wind, the new release from singer Patrisha Thomson is just […]
Pangea Hot Summer Jazz Series, curated and hosted by singer Ben Cassara, continues apace with the inspired pairing of Mary Foster Conklin and Andrea Wolper. The friends shared the vocalist chair in Art Lillard’s Heavenly Big Band for many years, but this was their first duo show. I wish that the well-programmed show had included a […]
You know that gothic musical, Haunted Garden, and its brooding lament that’s been done to death: The Pavement Grows Flowers While Our Garden Is Empty? It’s a chestnut in the American Songbook. Cue record scratch. Um—no, you don’t know it. It’s never been heard before and you’ll never hear it again—it existed in an instant […]
The various Songbook Series at Jazz at Lincoln Center comprise one of the crown jewels of New York cabaret and jazz entertainment. The latest offering was a tribute to an iconic master of American song filled with familiar, perhaps too familiar, songs presented by three vocalists and a fine quartet of jazz musicians. Anything Goes! […]
Award-winning nightclub and concert vocalist Jeff Harnar has been beguiling cabaret audiences since the late 1980s with his romantic voice and upbeat, boyish persona. On June 17, PS Classics released I Know Things Now—My Life in Sondheim’s Words, Harnar’s first solo album in 17 years—and it’s truly extraordinary. Based on the singer’s sung-through stage show, […]
Harts’ Desire is a one-person tour de force created by multiple award-winning cabaret artist Mark Nadler. Nadler tackles a demanding process and achieves a masterful production; he creates a full two-act musical principally from the works of Moss Hart and Lorenz Hart and presents it on a small cabaret stage. There are eight characters, both […]
Berlin-based jazz singer/composer Erik Leuthäuser made his American debut recently at Pangea as he celebrated the forthcoming release of a new tribute album to New York music legend Ronny Whyte, with Whyte himself as a special guest. Multi-tattooed Leuthäuser has a goth, gender-fluid look and wardrobe that make his thoughtful, understated vocals and impressive jazz […]
In the new show, On a Beach, written and performed by Zachary Clause, the singer/actor presented a kaleidoscopic journey through beaches, Hollywood, gay life, the Great American Songbook, mortality, history, survival, therapy, air travel, age, and his own past and present. He established a beachhead of sorts on the tiny stage at Pangea as he […]
An older Desi Arnaz, played by Broadway actor Danny Bolero (In the Heights, and the currently-running Plaza Suite), enters the Brick Room at Don’t Tell Mama reminiscing about the past complete with some ambient sounds that seem like memories he is reliving. Then, with some of Arnaz’s recorded music in the background, the real band kicks […]
