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Gregory Generet
August 17, 2011
“A Slow Hot Wind”
The Metropolitan Room – August 9 – 12
After a career with CBS that won him three Emmys, Gregory Generet has been making a quick ascent in New York’s jazz world with the release last year of his well-received CD “[re] Generet-ion” and appearances at high-profile nightspots like Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center. There was a frisson of expectation when the cool gent with the wide smile and form-fitting designer suit took to the stage for his week-long engagement at the Metropolitan Room. His show, “A Slow Hot Wind” (taken from the song “Slow Hot Wind” by Norman Gimbel and Henry Mancini), was a musical reflection on summer songs, and his selections were both popular and obscure.
On the positive side, Generet displayed good musicianship, counting off with the band and showing real joy with his dancing, yelping, and deftly working a shaker during one song. He surrounded himself with a world-class quartet of musicians (more on them later). The singer also was clearly comfortable in front of his audience and created a nice rapport with his patter. He took his time evoking the excitement and drama of a pre-Disneyfied Times Square before easing into Cole Porter’s “Love for Sale.”
A baritone, Generet possesses an impressive vocal range, occasionally reaching some wailing high notes. Still, the tone doesn’t yet have a fluid richness that might have helped him color the romantic songs a bit more. In addition, he tended to get lost in the music a little too much, closing his eyes and jamming with the band. If he had connected with the audience during the songs as much as he did in his patter, he’d have been golden.
He often mugged to express emotion—one that did not seem truly felt. His congeniality frequently got in the way of interpretation. That spirit worked well for the upbeat, funky “Tight” (Betty Carter), but songs like “No Moon at All” (Redd Evans, Dave Mann) and, certainly, “Love for Sale” demand a deeper reading.
One habit that Generet should break immediately is his desire to punctuate his patter with exclamations like “Wow, that was fun” or “When I heard these musicians in rehearsal, I knew it was going to be a great show.” A good singer doesn’t need to advertise; the audience should be able to discover it on its own.
The arrangement on Van Morrison’s overdone “Moondance” was good enough to make the song fresh again, and Generet made the best of his lower range on the slow and sultry “When the Night Turns Into Day” (Glenn Ferris, Jeffrey Smith).
He was generous with his musicians, giving them several solos. The young Christian Sands on piano is a real find who deserves a great future, and the other three are already legends: bassist Matthew Rybicki, drummer Dwayne “Cook” Broadnax, and trumpeter Eddie Allen. Allen managed to make an entire lifetime of ups and downs come out of that trumpet, getting the biggest applauses of the night.
Generet saved his best for last, finally discarding the carefully crafted classy persona to let loose with his encore, a blues rendition of Bobby Troup’s “Baby, Baby, All the Time.” The harsh tinge to his voice was extremely effective here, and the singer showed real grit with impassioned, on-pitch cries. One could only wonder where that guy had been for the previous sixty minutes.
Roy Sander has been covering cabaret and theatre for over thirty years. He’s written cabaret and theatre reviews, features, and commentary for seven print publications, most notably Back Stage, and for CitySearch on the Internet. He covered cabaret monthly on “New York Theatre Review” on PBS TV, and cabaret and theatre weekly on WLIM-FM radio. He was twice a guest instructor at the London School of Musical Theatre. A critic for BistroAwards.com, he is also the site’s Reviews Editor; in addition, he is Chairman of the Advisory Board of MAC.
