Otis, Marshall & Sieck

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Otis, Marshall & Sieck

Café Noctambulo at Pangea, NYC, September 10, 2015

Reviewed by Peter Haas for Cabaret Scenes

Marshall-Otis-Sieck-Cabaret-Scenes-Magazine_212It was, to quote the song, “a lovely way to spend an evening”—a bright, warm, entertaining session of great songs, masterfully and entertainingly delivered, and served with fine food. It was a one-shot appearance by Jeannine ‘Jahneen’ Otis, Larry Marshall and Steve Sieck, performing a packed program of jazz standards and backed by a three-piece band, downtown on Second Avenue and 12th Street, at Café Noctambulo at Pangea.

The room, in the back of the restaurant, is intimate and comfortable, perfect for the personable performances by the three headliners. Throughout the evening, with Sieck at the piano, Marshall (a Grammy winner and serving as informal MC) shone with such standards as “Let’s Fall in Love,” “Secret Love,” “My Blue Heaven,” “Don’t Get Around Much Any More,” the moving “Lush Life,” and an exuberant “Satin Doll.”

Otis – tall, slim and sultry – scored warmly with such numbers as “Someone to Watch Over Me” (accompanied by murmurs of appreciation from the diners), a spirited “Fever,” “Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be?),” “Nobody Wants You When You’re Down and Out” and, taking over the piano, several of her own songs.

Sieck, who has appeared in other rooms on his own, showed his songwriting talents as he performed several of his original numbers throughout the evening. Blending comfortably, in subject and style, with the evening’s classics, but with an occasional modern edge to their lyrics, they fit neatly into the evening’s mood.

The finale: Marshall and the audience filling the room together with a rendition of “Minnie the Moocher.”

Peter Haas

Writer, editor, lyricist and banjo plunker, Peter Haas has been contributing features and performance reviews for Cabaret Scenes since the magazine’s infancy. As a young folk-singer, he co-starred on Channel 13’s first children’s series, Once Upon a Day; wrote scripts, lyrics and performed on Pickwick Records’ children’s albums, and co-starred on the folk album, All Day Singing. In a corporate career, Peter managed editorial functions for CBS Records and McGraw-Hill, and today writes for a stable of business magazines. An ASCAP Award-winning lyricist, his work has been performed at Carnegie Hall, Feinstein’s, Metropolitan Room and other fine saloons.