I Wish You Love: The French Songbook with David Marino is a beautifully crafted, wonderfully performed showcase for a remarkable young singer from Canada named David Marino. His youth and his homeland and his song choices might lead the uninformed to place Marino in the Michael Bublé school of new residents in the world of the Great American (and in this case French) Songbook, but he has a style and a grace that set him apart from, and ahead of, all the other “pretenders to the throne.” Those pretenders tend to lean far too heavily into the “Rat Pack”/ lounge lizard style of Sinatra, Martin, and Davis, reveling in crass delivery and a nostalgia that is not their own. David Marino could not be further from that tired and tiresome cliché.
David Marino(Photo: Kevin Alvey)
The delight with which he presents his guided tour of Gallic standards is immediately palpable and the stylishly simple phrasing and smooth, strong, resonant vocals mark him as a star on the rise. There is an innocent charm and a refreshing purity in his delivery that never falters. He makes each song his own, not by showing off, not by pushing, but by simply and beautifully telling the stories truly and thoughtfully. As young and as pure as his voice is throughout, there is wisdom and confidence and power in his performance that belies his years. Rather than Sinatra and company, the singer that comes to mind as I got lost in the sheer musicality of the show was Rosemary Clooney. Her effortless swing, attention to lyric detail, and total joy in performing were everywhere evident on the stage at Birdland.
Wisely surrounding himself with a quartet of major talents led by Billy Stritch on piano, with Jacob Wutzke on drums, Yoshi Waki on bass, and Jeff Barone on guitar, the perfection extended to each instrument and each arrangement. Singing in both English and French, Marino handled the bilingual repertoire as well as I have ever seen it handled and his commitment to the lyric is so strong that even on those numbers where the translation is left out or delivered later, there is no doubt about the emotional narrative he was conveying.
A perfectly chosen opening medley of “April in Paris” (Vernon Duke, Yip Harburg) and “C’est Si Bon” (Henri Betti; Jerry Seelen, English lyrics) energetically transported us immediately to a classic Parisian café where we gladly remained for the next hour. Providing a humorous toast at the start of the evening is “The Night They Invented Champagne” (Frederick Loewe, Alan Jay Lerner) that fills the room with smiles. While most of the songs are well known, he delivers fresh and inventive takes on even the most well-known of them, even managing to personalize “The Good Life” (Sacha Distel, Jean Broussolle, Jack Reardon) and “Beyond the Sea” (Charles Trenet; English lyrics, Jack Lawrence), the latter being a particular favorite of mine.
There is an infectious lightness infusing most of the repertoire so when Marino foregoes that, the effect is stunning. On “My Reverie” (Claude Debussy, Larry Clinton), his beautiful voice combines with Stritch’s exquisite playing to bring the classic to haunting, breathtaking life. What would a show called “The French Songbook” be without a bit of Michel Legrand? Two classics fill the bill here. A fresh and vibrant take on “The Windmills of Your Mind” (with Marilyn and Alan Bergman) is followed by an astonishingly powerful “Les Parapluies de Cherbourg” (with Jacques Demy), better known as “I Will Wait for You.” His version is a complete knockout I have never heard it done better. Charles Aznavour’s “There Is a Time,” in which his passionate delivery makes it a telling comment on our times, is an ideal lead-in to the final songs of the show. A funny, irrepressible jaunt with Aznavour’s “For Me Formidable” gives way to a stirring, anthemic “If We Only Have Love” (Jacques Brel; English lyrics, Eric Blau, Mort Shuman).
The only thing to rival the excitement and satisfaction of I Wish You Love: The French Songbook with David Marino is the anticipation of what delights David Marino will bring on his return to NYC.
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Presented at Birdland, 315 W. 44th St., NYC, on April 28, 2025.
