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Marilyn Maye
October 16, 2009
“More Mercer”
Metropolitan Room – October 6 – 17 (not Oct. 15)
New Yorkers cannot get enough of this lady. As Johnny Mercer wrote, she’s “Just Too Marvelous for Words.” In June, Marilyn Maye brought her tribute “Mercer … the Maye Way” to the Metropolitan Room. Because that was not enough for us and because Johnny Mercer wrote over 1,000 songs, Maye returned in October with 40 “More Mercer” tunes. Some were from her last show, but “More Mercer” was delivered with just as much pizzazz and heart and the audience loved it. As usual, Marilyn Maye’s program brimmed over with her dynamic personality, secure jazz punch, and her remarkably robust voice, proving that those irresistible Mercer tunes still define the term “American standard.”
After performing at the opening of the 20th Cabaret Convention, Maye moved downtown to the Metropolitan Room and for almost two hours made that stage a world of entertainment. Except for the opening song, “Have You Got Any Castles, Baby?” (Mercer’s lyrics with Richard Whiting’s melody), and the closer written with Harold Arlen, “Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home,” the songs were arranged in segments of medleys. Medleys are often not effective but in Maye’s hands, the buck stops with her, and you have to agree that there is nothing wrong with building a knock-’em-dead arc, a breathtaking series of one great tune after the other. You just have to know how to do it and MM does. The show flowed like a mesmerizing stream, stopped only by patter.
There was a miscellaneous medley called “Marvelous Mercer,” from “Day In, Day Out” (Mercer/Rube Bloom) through to a playful “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby” and “Jeepers Creepers” (both with music by Harry Warren). These tunes were made for a bit of flirtation, so a word about Maye’s patter. She is so self-assured and so down-to-earth that she is really a hostess in the cabaret room, reaching all corners and having some flirtatious fun with the guys at a ringside table.
While Johnny Mercer wrote with over 200 composers, he and Harold Arlen were a special team, producing exemplary songs of many moods. Accompanied by bassist Tom Hubbard, her long-time drummer, Jim Eklot, and musical director/pianist Tedd Firth, Maye illustrated this with a rousing gospel affirmation of “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive” and the classic torch song “One for My Baby (And One More for the Road).” Firth was formidable here on piano, heightening Maye’s delivery of a story that never really is told to Joe the bartender. With Kansas City blues in her voice and Firth’s powerhouse chords mastering the keyboard, Maye’s galvanizing delivery of “Blues in the Night” was as authentic a blues sound as you’ll ever hear, with Mercer’s colloquial color proven in the pounding line “I been in some big towns an’ heard me some big talk.” Also with Arlen’s blues style music, Maye and Firth were assertive and rhythmic in “Come Rain or Come Shine.”
Maye’s sassy “Satin Doll” (Mercer/Ellington/Strayhorn) was a transport to foxy urbanity. Shifting moods again, Maye looked back at life with acknowledgement but no regret in three haunting ballads: “When October Goes” (Mercer and Manilow), “I Remember You” (Mercer/Victor Schertzinger), and “When the World Was Young” (with M. Philippe-Gerard’s persistent melody).
Marilyn Maye proves that 81 is the new 41. Johnny Carson knew a good thing when he saw it and he booked her for 76 appearances on “The Tonight Show.” Keep your eyes open for her next appearance and see why.
