Club Review: Janis Siegel with Yaron Gershovsky—”The Colors of My Life”
Gerry Geddes
For his contributions to Broadway and the Great American Songbook, composer Cy Coleman deserves every accolade and tribute that has been or could be bestowed upon him. One of the latest, and one of the best, was presented by acclaimed (and Bistro Award-winning) jazz vocalist Janis Siegel at the legendary Blue Note. With repertoire taken from her...
Club Review: Tierney Sutton with Shelly Berg— “Songs of Loss, Justice, and Hope”
Gerry Geddes
If you are going to call a show Songs of Loss, Justice, and Hope, all I can say is you had better deliver. And that’s just what Tierney Sutton and Shelly Berg did in their new show at Birdland Theater—delivered! Sutton sat on a stool center stage next to the piano which was turned so that...
Club Review: Val Hawk—”Special Material”
Mark Dundas Wood
Val Hawk is a singer with an earthy, wry presence—she’s funny, friendly and unpretentious. Shortly before she was officially called to take the stage at her recent Pangea show, Special Material, she was there in front of it: shooting the breeze with audience members—confiding that when she’d purchased the dress she was wearing, she’d assumed...
Club Review: The Kinsey Sicks—”Deep Inside Tonight”
Gerry Geddes
The Green Room 42, which recently celebrated its own sixth anniversary, played host to the 30th anniversary Show of “the dragapella, beauty shop quartet"—The Kinsey Sicks. As its title Deep Inside Tonight implies, it was a parody of a cable news show through a skewered, madcap, political, hilarious lens. It was an evening filled with original material...
Club Review: Dane Terry—”How to Play the Piano”
Gerry Geddes
Dane Terry splits his artistic life between painting and music. The musical half frequently leads him to cabaret stages around town. Most recently he brought his show, How to Play the Piano, to Pangea in the East Village. The show is a look at the singer/composer’s back catalog of material, which he has revisited and sometimes...
Bistro Bits: Summertime Serenaders, Part 2 – Julie Benko and Laurin Talese
Mark Dundas Wood
No matter where singers are in their career trajectory, the potential for creating something magical is a constant. Veteran performers are obviously more qualified to look back at how they’ve gotten to where they are, while newbies tend to look with yearning toward what’s ahead on the path. But there’s no reason for singers to...
Club Review: Anthony Wayne—”…Just Me”
Gerry Geddes
From the first notes of Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Fantasy” (Maurice White, Verdine White, Eddie del Barrio), the opening number of his new show, …Just Me, singer Anthony Wayne leaves no doubt that he has a remarkable voice. The title is somewhat belied by the fact that surrounding him on the stage at The Green...
Bistro Bits: Summer Serenaders, Part 1 – Jane Scheckter and Marieann Meringolo
Mark Dundas Wood
No denying it. Summer is winding down now. Daylight hours are gone by 8pm. Technically, there are still a few weeks left in the season, but they’re flying by. There have been some terrific cabaret turns this summer—seen by some as “off season” for cabaret. This week and next, Bistro Bits will center on a...
Bistro Bits: Summertime Cabaret: Looking Back, Looking Bacharach, Looking Forward
Mark Dundas Wood
Like a good many things, cabaret action slows somewhat during the summer months, though it certainly doesn’t shut down entirely. There have been plenty of club shows playing in the early summer weeks to keep an avid cabaret goer occumpied Unfortunately, the imminent closing of the Laurie Beechman Theatre has been the biggest news story...
Club Review: Hannah Carter
Gerry Geddes
It is particularly thrilling to come across young jazz vocalists and musicians who are investigating the classic repertoire from the Great American Songbook on their own terms, not so much interested in recreating it as in discovering their own voices within the material. Hannah Carter, currently studying jazz at Columbia University, is one such singer,...
