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Showing posts with label Melissa Manchester. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Melissa Manchester. Show all posts
Melissa Manchester's new album, You Gotta Love the Life, kicks off with the catchy title tune co-written by the singer. It is, indeed, a splendid pop album released independently, which is where the musical action seems to be these day, outside the mainstream drivel. Herein, I think she proves there is life artistically -- big and bright -- after and beyond Clive Davis.
Manchester's collaborative efforts are rich, especially on "Other Side of the Phone." She wrote the music for that track with lyrics supplied by the legendary Hal David. Duets with Stevie Wonder (on harmonica), Dionne Warwick and Al Jarreau (vocals) among others are all delights.
The album's styles span pop to jazz to soul, all rendered resplendently. MM's ballad rendition of Ellie Greenwich/ Jeff Barry's "Be My Baby" is a pop gem. Her jazz-cum-conga arrangement of the medley "Let's Face the Music and Dance/ From This Moment On" is bliss, as is her bonus track, an accapella rendition of Rogers and Hammerstein's "Something Wonderful." The original "Open My Heart to Your Love" is another stand-out. She even ventures into Country successfully with the number "Feelin' for You."
Ms Manchester has a right to wear the tiara on her album's artwork. Not only is she one of America's pop princesses, but this is certainly a crowning achievement to her long career. Flawless and very highly recommended. You're gonna love this album!
You Gotta Love the Life is beautifully nuanced from start to finish. The cd version is handsomely designed and is loaded with informative liner notes and credits. Available on Amazon.com. Melissa Manchester will be at 54 Below in NYC March 26 through 28.
In such strong voice, Melissa Manchester opened her set at B.B. King's New York last night with the song, "So Strong." She followed that first number with "Don't Let the Feeling End (theme from the film Ice Castles)," an Oscar-nominated song written by her friends, Marvin Hamlisch and Carol Bayer Sager, and a Billboard smash.
This was a good tiding, as I had just read the Clive Davis tell-all. He painted Melissa as an artist who wanted to promote her songwriting talent and disdained many of the songs Clive offered her and that, then, became radio hits for her. But Melissa treated us to most of her popular hits and so much more during this show.
In a sparkly black blouse-and-jacket ensemble over black slacks, Melissa tore through her popular catalogue with "Midnight Blue" (which she originally wrote for Dionne Warwick); "Just You and I;" "Come In from the Rain" on piano; the Grammy Award-winning (for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance) "You Should Hear How She Talks About You" ("Made me the queen of aerobics classes," the songbird snarked); "Don't Cry Out Loud" (written by Carol Bayer Sager and Peter Allen) was offered with a beautiful arrangement on Spanish guitar.
In a frighteningly karaoke-like moment of the night, MM did a duet with Barry Manilow -- who appeared on-screen! -- to Carole King's "You've Got a Friend." She kindly referred to her work with Manilow and Midler, for whom she was a Harlette. (She even appears in the Midler movie, For the Boys, as a back-up girl!)
Surprises of the night included a cover of The Ronettes' "Be My Baby" that was presented as a beautiful ballad not unlike the Ellie Greenwich recording; "Let's Face the Music and Dance" and "From This Moment On," prefaced by Melissa discussing teaching melody-driven music at UCLA; Rogers and Hammerstein's "Something Wonderful" (from The King and I); the Bermans' "The Way We Were;" and -- as her encore and tribute to Dusty Springfield (whose birthday was on show night) -- an impresive interpretation of "Son of a Preacher Man."
Other highlights of the evening included Melissa's powerhouse vocals on "I Know Who I Am," which she co-wrote, from Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls movie and "Beloved," backed by a magnificent recorded choir, from the singer's commitment to teach music to life-imprisoned women.
I met Melissa after the show, where she spoke more about her involvement with Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, California. She is a doll! Plus, she was very conversationally engaged and kind, and just lovely to speak with.
Melissa was a Bistro Awards winner in 2012, appearing and performing at that ceremony with Marvin Hamlisch, who passed away shortly thereafter. I sat with Sherry Eaker, who produces The Bistros, unfortunately spilling a glass of wine on her. (At least it was pino, a white wine. But... oh boy, I'm such a klutz sometimes!)
We sat across from her friends, who ran into us on our way into the showroom from Lucille's bar across the floor. (It was Sherry's first visit there and she is such a Motown girl! She hated to leave the live band doing Motown faves. Always good to turn a friend on to something good.)
Her friends, it turned out, were Broadway star Lee Roy Reams, and his significant other. Mr Reams has appeared in Sweet Charity! Oklahoma! Hello, Dolly! La Cage! The Producers! Yet, he was as sweet and dishy as anyone might imagine, and adored the show along with his partner.
On our way out, we ran into my friends Tony and Charlie! I joined them on the line to meet Melissa. What a great group of people! What a great show! And what a great star! Melissa from the Bronx, come back to NYC soon!
It's almost time for the 28th Annual Bistros in New York! An Award ceremony like no other that New Yorkers look forward to each year! The 28th ANNUAL BISTRO AWARDS take place at The Gotham Comedy Club, West 23rd Street between 7th & 8th Avenues, on Monday, MARCH 4, 2013.
This ceremony celebrates New York's unique cabaret entertainment, both upcoming talent, and the established and famous. Last year, the eloquent and gracious Melissa Manchester received a Bistro, and was backed up on piano by the late, great Marvin Hamlisch! Watch this fantastic live performance at the 2012 ceremony:
Come to the cabaret awards this year & see what real talent is!
Please go to The Bistro Awards on Facebook and "Like"!
We surried down to a stoned soul picnic that was happening in Damrosch Park Saturday night. It was the free concert celebrating the music of Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, Laura Nyro and it was nothing short of magnificent at a compact 90-minutes. But what a tribute, what talent, what a dazzling experience of songs and voices!
We arrived an hour early for the event that officially kicked off at 6 pm so we could get choice seats. On my way back for a pino grigio at the concession stand, I ran into one of the back-up singers from Nona Hendryx's new album, Mutatis Mutandis, Kenyata Hawkins. She was quite sweet and demure. The last time I saw her, onstage at Nona's B.B. King's gig, she was decked out in hot pants and a tight white tank top. She informed me she helped write the album's stirring funk-disco "Mad As Hell," though she is noticeably not credited on the liner notes. No matter, she was there to support Nona.
The back-up singers on the park's stage, fronting a full orchestra, included back-up singers Ula Hedwig and Charlotte Crossley (two of Bette Midler's original Harlettes). Is there a hot gig in Manhattan at which Ula does not turn up as a back-up girl?
Songwriter, producer, musician, ex-member of The Young Rascals, Felix Caviliere, conducted and even performed "Blowin' Away." Mr Caviliere was the producer of Ms Nyro's Christmas and the Beads of Sweat album.
"They had voices then" is a message one might take away from this show's line-up of seasoned veterans, though it opened with relative newcomers, Jan Nigel & the Ebony Hillbillies who nicely presented Laura Nyro's classic, "And When I Die," and Kate Ferber who strongly put across "Stony End" with a lively arrangement.
But it was the seasoned diva superstars who really drove the musical legacy of Laura Nyro home for us.
Desmond Child & Rouge were a welcome sight (and sound) from halcyon days. Their extended version of "Eli's Coming" (a huge hit for Three Dog Night) was wonderful. Ms Nyro's son, known theatrically as Gil T, joined in during the bridge to do a rap that, unfortunately, seemed to add nothing to the number, aesthetically, and was off-topic as far as I could tell.
I was in college when the Gonna Take a Miracle album was released. As part of fulfilling her contract with Columbia records, Nyro put together an album of her favorite '60s pop tracks (including a forever haunting version of "The Bells") that has become a classic. At the time of its release, it largely received tepid reviews. At a party on campus, I overheard the album being dismissed by many as "decadent nostalgia" that was hoping to cash in on Bette Midler's then-trending reinvention of pop standards for a '70s rock'n'roll audience; something that rose up from the gay camp underground. Culturally, the '60s were just over and early-'70s music wanted to move in a different direction. Still, the album was then, and now remains, a favorite that spoke to me in a special way. It still does. Aching, haunting, soulful and dance-oriented; something new was being born from what was freshly old.
Columbia also brought in the group Labelle to do back-up for Ms Nyro. At the time, Patti Labelle & the Bluebelles were transforming into the glam-rock Labelle, to take flight after their work on this iconic album.
In concert, then, Sarah Dash and Nona Hendryx powerfully put across Nyro's arrangements on tracks like "I Met Him on a Sunday," "You've Really Got a Hold on Me," "Gonna Take a Miracle," and the "Monkey Time/Dancing in the Streets" medley that brought all of Damrosch Park to its collective feet, dancing in the park and clapping to the beat. It didn't matter what we wore just as long as we were there. And we were -- not just in body, but in heart, spirit and intellect. Unfortunately, Patti was not there as she has a lot of Lady Marmalade brand marinades to sell. It was irrelevant, as the diva combination of Dash & Hendryx already was through-the-roof sonically, their vocal power and soulfulness inspiring.
Tony award-winner Melba Moore established something of a comeback at this show, looking swell and svelte in black, and in great voice. She belted out "Time & Love," an L.N. song she'd recorded, and the popular "Wedding Bell Blues," shaking the stage rafters with her voice, and even returning for a series of bows while holding her exiting high note.
Melissa Manchester, Grammy winner and a recipient of last year's Bistro Awards, was a goddess in white as she danced across the stage to her piano and launched into "Save the Country," with such force and theatrical flare (not to mention excellent timing of the title message), it roused the crowd once more.
She concluded the show by singing "Stoned Soul Picnic," but not before talking about the influence of Laura Nyro on her own work. Manchester discussed Nyro's rich and inventive vocabulary.
"Anyone know what 'surry' means?" We all did, of course, in our souls. We were all connected in spirit. We were all, artists and audience, paying tribute to the legendary and unique Ms Laura Nyro. It was communion, it was perfection, it sent us into the streets with joy and hope.
I last saw Laura Nyro perform at The Bottom Line. A live recording was made from that show. I will never forget her. She led me, musically, through adolescence to young adulthood, and the concert was a peon to that voice, that uniqueness, that influence. Bless you, Laura, we were together to celebrate and remember.
The 27th Annual Bistro Awards presentation was the first I've attended and I found it a total embarrassment... of riches! Unfortunately for me, although I was thoroughly enjoying the generous parade of entertainment, I had to leave before it all wrapped up and consequently missed two major Awards winners: Dee Dee Bridgewater (as in one over troubled) and Melissa Manchester. (And you don't know how they talked about her! (Only good things, though, I hear.))
My friend, novelist Kevin Scott Hall, who is also cabaret columnist for Edge New York and writes reviews for Bistro Awards on-line (http://bistroawards.com/), told me that Dee Dee Bridgewater gave great show. "She had missed her plane but got in just in time to come directly to the Bistros," he told me confidentially. "She was wearing sweats and had her little dog on a leash, but she tore up the place with her two songs. Then Marvin Hamlisch accompanied Melissa. She was great ...and very gracious."
Kevin is a Bistro Awards committee member, and he was also a presenter last night along with the show's associate producer, Richard Skipper, and such fabulous icons of entertainment as Annie Ross, Marvin Hamlish and especially journalist Liz Smith, still looking great at 89. "I'm the only intellectual ever fired by The New York Post," Liz quipped, modesty be damned!
Ms Smith then introduced her friend, entertainment legend Kaye Ballard, winner of this year's Bob Harrington Lifetime Achievement Award. Regretfully, Special K Kate opted to appear beamed to us, via Skype, from L.A., still as sharp and funny as ever at 86. She will be at Feinstein's in June, presumably not by satellite or holographic image.
Indeed, all legendary ladies present were joys to behold -- and can we, any of us, help but have a special flow of love for the show biz idols with whom we grew up? And so the love flowed, as did two bottles of lite beer over glasses full of ice for me, and we were equally awed by a new generation of talent creating a new and exciting vibe permeating the cozy theater at the Gotham Comedy Club in Chelsea.
Early on, Terese Genecco performed, as did Shaynee Rainbolt and Nicolas King, all of whom I previously experienced at one of Genecco's Tuesday night shows at Iridium recently. It was a treat to enjoy them all over again. Amy Beth Williams' coloratura soprano, stage presence and interpretive skills always delight. As does Justin Sayre's foppish comic persona. (I mean, it is a persona?)
"As a gay, Justin has excelled at scarf placement, devilish quips, and a healthy, but firm, love of the American musical," reads his bio; his show at the Duplex has been going strong for over two years for good reason. Aaron Weinstein's comedy mixed with violin virtuosity won me over, as did the faux tacky-lounge act of Max and Maxine, somewhat in the tradition of Bette Midler's Vicki Eydie and Kiki & Herb.
Jim David's hosting was wry and irreverant, an act in and of itself. Jon Weber's musical direction was consistently divinely inspired. Always good to see Don't Tell Mama's Sidney Myer (here as announcer). And producer Sherry Eaker pulled off a Monday night miracle, looking cool, calm, elegant and fetching in a black, diaphanous gown with sparkling embroidery and thong; something that Cher might wear when feeling sheepish. Ms Eaker had much reason to feel good about herself.
So, what wasn't to like about this Awards ceremony? Not a thing if you're asking me. It was a thoroughly entertaining one fueled by inter-generational star power, and that energy is what keeps New York cabaret an essential, vital stage medium. In terms of the onslaught of entertainment, joy of performing and the length of the event, it was a lot of bang for your buck.
Last night, the medium was indeed the message. And what a merry message it was indeed!
Below, a very 1984 Melissa Manchester on Solid Gold, featuring The Solid Gold Dancers.
