Eric Comstock & Barbara Fasano— “Painting the Town”

December 7, 2025

For some reason, I had the mistaken idea that the recent recording Painting the Town, from the singing-spouses team of Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano, was a live album, perhaps captured at one of their appearances at NYC’s Birdland. As someone who enjoys their club work, I thought that such a recording was a great idea. 

But, instead, we have a studio album, and I am not in the least disappointed! This is the duo’s first album release as a team, even though they’ve been married now for two decades. And it’s very good indeed.

The collection captures the same cosmopolitan vibes that Comstock and Fasano deliver on a club stage. So, no, the “town” they’re painting here is clearly not Podunk, North Someplace. It’s Manhattan, the wondrous toy itself. 

New York City features prominently in two songs: their opener, “I Cannot Hear the City” (Marvin Hamlisch and Craig Carnelia, from Sweet Smell of Success) and “Broadway,” the snappy jazz standard from Teddy McRae, Wilbur “Bill” Bird, and Henri Woode, first recorded by Count Basie. Other, subtler nods to NYC come during “Marcie” (Joni Mitchell) and “Old Friends” (Paul Simon). The singers also take us on a jokey detour to Long Island with “The Hamptons,” Jim Lowe’s spirited sendup of the community where there’s “a sugar daddy for every lass and laddie.” It’s quite the trip.

The program includes solos for him, solos for her, and duets for them. These are divided up more or less equally. Comstock is at the piano for all songs, and many of his and Fasano’s vocal lines have buzzy-bee countermelodies adorned with charming musical filigree. “I Cannot Hear the City” is one of the best examples of this ornamentation, and it’s quite effective, as are the singers’ harmonies. I would, however, have chosen something more wowza for the album’s opening slot. (Maybe “Broadway”?)

Along with “The Hamptons,” one of the best of the duo’s joint efforts is “Blue Skies,” a shot of optimism from Irving Berlin that will celebrate its centenary in the coming year. Here, Fasano takes the vocal lead. The elaborate piano accompaniment by Comstock is, once again, a plus. I felt that Fasano on this track was as good as I’ve ever heard her—but then she quickly surpassed herself on two solo tracks.

The first of these is an exquisite rendition of Cole Porter’s “In the Still of the Night” (arrangement by the late Ric Jensen) that ends with Fasano adamantly repeating Porter’s urgent, shattering phrase: “Do you love me? Do you love me?” The second is a heartful rendition of “Brown Penny,” Duke Ellington and John Latouche’s fine reworking of a William Butler Yeats poem.

As for Comstock’s solos, he shines on “Just One of Those Things” (Cole Porter, again) and the tender reverie about reveries, “I Thought About You” (James Van Heusen, Johnny Mercer). But my favorite solo of his here, to my great surprise, is Bernstein and Sondheim’s “Tonight” from West Side Story. His voice is full of warmth and youthful anticipation but, taken at a slower pace than we’re used to, the song seems almost to be filtered through the sensibility of a mature man who now understands fully everything he didn’t comprehend about those bright sparks of young love that flew by so quickly.

Adding significantly to the success of this project are Sean Smith on bass, Vito Lesczac on drums, and—on several tracks—Houston Person on tenor saxophone.

Let’s hope that we don’t have to wait for another 20 years of wedded bliss to pass before these two give us another album of their kind of music.

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Produced by Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano on the Human Child Records label.

About the Author

Mark Dundas Wood is an arts/entertainment journalist and dramaturg. He began writing reviews for BistroAwards.com in 2011. More recently he has contributed "Cabaret Setlist" articles about cabaret repertoire. Other reviews and articles have appeared in theaterscene.net and clydefitchreport.com, as well as in American Theatre and Back Stage. As a dramaturg, he has worked with New Professional Theatre and the New York Musical Theatre Festival. He is currently literary manager for Broad Horizons Theatre Company.