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Janis Siegel
January 31, 2015
For listeners like me with fond memories of Janis Siegel’s soaring, raucous gospel-jive vocals on Manhattan Transfer’s big 1975 hit “Operator,” the prospect of hearing her in an intimate setting like Jazz at Kitano was enticing. She did not disappoint.
I caught the second set of the evening. Siegel arrived on the stage dressed in a rather prim-looking tailored black suit framed with what appeared to be a black marabou boa. Ovef the years she may have discarded some of the more exuberantly Deco-ish trappings of her Seventies salad days. But once she began singing, scatting (something she did a good deal of), and playfully engaging her listeners, those subtle streaks of purple in her hair somehow brightened. Performing a soulful version of “All Shook Up” (Otis Blackwell, Elvis Presley), she snapped her fingers and even slapped at her chest at one point.
A member of Manhattan Transfer since 1973, Siegel has been known nearly as long as an award-winning solo jazz act. Teamed with her at Kitano was gifted young jazz pianist Addison Frei. The two had first performed together when she was a guest artist at the University of North Texas, where he was a student. Frei’s playing at Kitano was warm, clean, and thoughtful—he seemed to be completely in sync with his musical partner throughout the evening.
Much of the duo’s set explored what Siegel referred to as her musical “roots in AM radio” from the 1950s and 1960s. Her second number, for instance, was a heartfelt “The Tracks of My Tears” (William “Smokey” Robinson, Jr., Warren Moore, Marvin Tarplin), which was dedicated to the memory of Tim Hauser, the founder of Manhattan Transfer, who died last October. The bittersweet quality of the song’s performance was enhanced by a celestial-sounding solo interlude by Frei.
Siegel’s musical eclecticism was showcased as the set continued. Her scatty version of Paul Simon’s “At the Zoo” highlighted the lyric’s whimsy. On the line “Hamsters turn on frequently,” for instance, she mimed the smoking of a joint. In the set’s most beautiful turn, she sang a full-voiced, slowed-down version of Lennon and McCartney’s “For No One” in an arrangement that made the song sound like some long-lost gem of a ballad from the late 1940s. On Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic,” she turned up the volume and rocked.
There were some striking experiments as well. Singing the Patsy Cline hit “I Fall to Pieces” (Hank Cochran, Harlan Howard), she seemed to be taking the title literally, musically illustrating a descent into emotional anarchy. The selection began with an unholy-sounding howl from Siegel, who then drew out the phrases of the melody to almost painful lengths while Frei provided a jagged accompaniment. At one point during his wide-ranging solo, he played the melody in the bass clef while his right hand furnished the treble with some crazy, fluttery bats-in-the-belfry sounds. It wasn’t exactly pretty, but it was bold.
Somewhat more euphonic but still fairly offbeat was an original composition of Frei’s called “The Two-Step,” a sort of jazz art song, with imagery-focused lyrics. He sang along with Siegel at points on this number, and her enthusiasm for his musicality was evident.
Occasionally Siegel sounded a bit strained when she turned up the volume in her upper register. This was especially the case during the penultimate song in the set, “If I Were Your Woman” (Pam Sawyer, Clay McMurray, Gloria Jones). But the problem disappeared for the show’s closer, a driving yet charming take on Lorraine Feather and Eddie Arkin’s amusing “I Know the Way to Brooklyn,” performed in honor of Siegel’s home town.
Jazz at Kitano – January 21
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.
For listeners like me with fond memories of Janis Siegel’s soaring, raucous gospel-jive vocals on Manhattan Transfer’s big 1975 hit “Operator,” the prospect of hearing her in an intimate setting like Jazz at Kitano was enticing. She did not disappoint.