Stephen Holden on the Carolyn Leigh Tribute

How formidable an artist was Ms. Leigh? In her greatest lyrics, including “You Fascinate Me So” (Mr. Naughton), “(How Little It Matters) How Little We Know” (Ms. Boone), “Witchcraft” (the entire cast), she could go one-on-one with the best of Cole Porter and come up even.

The NYTimes weighs in on this weekend’s Carolyn Leigh tribute at the 92nd Street Y: “How formidable an artist was Ms. Leigh? In her greatest lyrics, including “You Fascinate Me So” (Mr. Naughton), “(How Little It Matters) How Little We Know” (Ms. Boone), “Witchcraft” (the entire cast), she could go one-on-one with the best of Cole Porter and come up even.”

(Photo: Karen Ziemba and Jay Leonhart performing in “I’ve Got Your Number,” part of the Lyrics & Lyricists series at the 92nd Street Y)

Insights from Classical Accompanists

 

A great article from the NYTimes about classical accompanists.  Lots of applicable ideas for cabaret performers and music directors.  Maybe easier lessons to take because they’re from another field!

  

“Just because someone has spent a lot of their life playing Schubert sonatas doesn’t mean they have something to say about ‘Winterreise,’ ” Mr. Vignoles said, referring to Schubert’s 70-minute song cycle of love and loss, “or that they’re offering something on a higher plane than people who have devoted their lives to examining works like ‘Winterreise.’ The technical demands are very much less than in something like Liszt’s ‘Années de Pèlerinage’ in terms of running around the keyboard or doing two extraordinary things with two hands at once. But ‘Winterreise’ requires a finesse to create color, vary articulation, and to do all that while thinking on someone else’s feet.”

Cabaret Calendar — April – May 2008

April 2008 

• Friday, 8:00pm – 4/4 Brian Stokes Mitchell (Music Center at Strathmore)
• Thursday, 8:00pm & 9:30pm — 4/10 Charlotte Marin — And I Cook Too (An Die Musik)
• Friday, 7:30pm — 4/11 — Emily Skinner & Alice Ripley (Kennedy Center)
• Saturday, 9:00pm — 4/12 Ron Squeri — Haunted Heart (Indigo)
• Wednesday, 8:00pm & 10:00pm — 4/16 Kenny Werner Trio (Blues Alley)
• Thursday, 8:00pm & 10:00pm — 4/17 Kenny Werner Trio (Blues Alley)
• Friday,   — 4/18 CHAWbaret (Capitol Hill Arts Workshop)
• Saturday, — 4/19 CHAWbaret (Capitol Hill Arts Workshop)
• Friday, 8:00pm — 4/19 Sally Martin (An Die Musik)
• Saturday, 8:00pm – 4/19 Nancy Wilson (Kennedy Center)
• Monday, 8:00pm — 4/21 DC Cabaret Network Open Mic — Alex Tang (Warehouse Theater)
• Friday, 7:30pm – 4/25 Judy Collins (Birchmere)

May 2008

• Saturday, 7:30pm – 5/10 Lynda Carter — An Intimate Evening with Lynda Carter (Kennedy Center)
• Saturday, 9:00pm — 5/10 David Sager Jazz Club (Indigo)
• Monday, 8:00pm — 5/12 John Kander (Signature Theatre)
• Wednesday, 6:00pm – 5/14 Charles Strouse (Kennedy Center)
• Thursday, 7:00pm — 5/15 Mary LouWilliams Women in Jazz Festival (Kennedy Center)
• Friday, 7:00pm — 5/16 Mary LouWilliams Women in Jazz Festival (Kennedy Center)
• Saturday, 7:00pm — 5/17 Mary LouWilliams Women in Jazz Festival (Kennedy Center)
• Saturday, 5/17 — Bevery Cosham (Reston Chorale)
• Sunday, 8:00pm — 5/25 John Eaton (Blues Alley)
• Sunday, 10:00pm — 5/25 John Eaton (Blues Alley)

Hear Joe Peck!!!

DC favorite Joe Peck has tracks featured on the Web site of Bob Levy.  Check out the site for Joe’s great vocals and Mr. Levy’s terrific material.

Reminder: Michael Feinstein at the Birchmere

Michael Feinstein performs at the Birchmere Sunday night, 30 March, 7:30pm.  Reservations.

Reminder: Beverly Cosham at the Lyceum

Beverly Cosham presents “I Wish You Love” with material from the Great American Songbook Saturday night, 29 March, 8:00pm at the Lyceum in Alexandria (201 S. Washington Street). Reservations 703-823-9563 / $25 

The First Double Entendre

Just got back from catching the first performance of Matt Howe & Dean Reichard’s debut cabaret Double Entendre.  Matt and Dean seem to be having a lot of fun, and the show is filled with terrific material.  Dean’s People That You Never Get to Love was quite touching, and Matt scored with a beautifully simple Bein’ Green and an uprorious Everybody’s Girl.

Here’s a cabaret lesson: someone who was complaining about doing choreography looked pretty darn good doing it!

The show reapeats tomorrow night at 8:00pm at CHAW (545 7th St SE, Washington DC). $15  Reservations. 

Here’s the song stack:

• You’re Just In Love (Berlin)
• The People That You Never Get to Love (Holmes)
• Bein’ Green (Raposo)
• Imagination (Burke / Van Huesen)
• Colored Lights (Kander / Ebb)
• Popular (Schwartz)
• Help Is On the Way (Friedman)
• Blue Skies (Berlin)
• Everybody’s Girl (Kander / Ebb)
• Unusual Way (Yeston)
• Simple (Yeston)
• Infinite Joy (Finn)
• Old Friend (Cryer / Ford)
• I Move On (Kander / Ebb)
• We Share Everything (Krieger / Russell)

Lonny Smith on the Need to Achieve

Check out the terrific think piece by Lonny Smith, March’s guest blogger on the DC Cabaret Network’s SongSpeak: “In my family, my father would mock me practicing scales as he secreted off to his work room, spending hours meticulously building furniture while I built vowels and breath control. It never crossed his mind that we were doing much the same thing.”

Shoshana Rocks It!

Check out this great video of Shoshana Bean one ofthe noted Elphebas from Wicked singing a medley of songs with a connecting theme…

(Also proving that any woman who wants  to work on Broadway had better be very comfortable with their mix.)

Hilary Ann Feldman Takes Flight and Soars

I have absolutely no objectivity about this CD because Hilary Feldman is one of my favorite people in the cabaret world.  She was one of my fellow participants at Perry-Mansfield*, and I was there when the medly of When I’m 64 / When You Are Old was born.  I sat through her working on Flight for 3 sessions.  And she was the one who preceded me in the student concert (singing Flight again), introducing me as “cabaret Google with glasses.”

And in addition to that, Hilary is the force behind a great organization (which I keep intending to profile here) called Acts of Kindness Cabaret that helps charitable groups raise money by donating the time of Midwest cabaret artists. And her final song, May I Suggest by Susan Werner caps the CD off in her benevolent spirit.

So check out her great CD (featuring the talents of that amazing Chicago cabaret force, Beckie Menzie who contributes her share of amazing arrangements).

1 Get Happy/Feelin’ Groovy

2 Flight

3 The Galaxy Song/Travel

4 Anyplace I Hang My Hat Is Home

5 When I’m 64/When You Are Old

6 They All Laughed

7 On My Way To You

8 Years

9 The Girl In 14G

10 The Life You Dream

11 May I Suggest

*Hilary was kind enough to share her P-M memories for this site. Click the Perry-Mansfield link at the right to read them.