Alexa Ray Joel
Café Carlyle, NYC, October 20, 2015
Reviewed by Elizabeth Ahlfors for Cabaret Scenes
Approaching the stage in precarious platforms and stilettos, a strapless mini and white fur-trimmed wrap, Alexa Ray Joel resembled a little girl all glammed up at her mother’s makeup table. Shmoozing comfortably with the audience, several times she asked, “You guys want to see me at the piano?
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” It’s misleading, however, to think she is a lightweight. In this third engagement at the intimate Café Carlyle, Joel proves she is a trained musician and secure performer who lets loose with a singular sound, gritty and powerful.
Accompanied by Carmine Giglio at the piano, the tone is set with “Let Me Entertain You” (Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim), showing her flair for humorous lyrics. With numerous friends and supporters in the audience, including her glamorous mother, Christie Brinkley, Joel was prepared with something for everyone, a few bars of “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” for her sunny mother, who was also the subject of Harry Warren/Al Dubin’s “Keep Young and Beautiful.
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” Quipping that she was not implying that her mother has no depth, she laughed, “I’m just pretending to be this superficial brat.” For her half-sister, Sailor, she wrote “My New Selfie” with lyric digs at Kim, Trump and others. Inspired by the birth of a new baby sister, she penned the heartfelt, “Verona,” about a daughter she hopes to have someday.
For the song inspired by her boyfriend, she moved to the keyboard to deliver a Billy Joel classic, “He’s (She’s) Got a Way” and unwilling to end the romantic segment, Alexa spontaneously added her father’s, “Just the Way You Are,” admitting she was unsure about the chords. She was right.
The eclectic songlist reflected a major influence of Billy Joel’s music and showmanship as well as the music of Stevie Wonder and the soul of Ray Charles. She was drawn to the harmonies of a 1901 lullaby, “Mighty Lak’ a Rose,” by Frank Stanton and Ethelbert Nevin, and reached a high point with a song originally written for Nina Simone, “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” (Bonnie Benjamin/Horace Ott/Sol Marcus). Joel seemed most connected in this song, falling into its soulful aura, taking it down an impassioned path, more reminiscent of a Billie Holiday mood than Simone or The Animals, who had made it a hit.
One downside is that Ms. Joel’s lyrics are muddled and not always pristine unless she pulls back more from the microphone. An asset is her outgoing, down-to-earth demeanor. Not so much “Uptown Girl” as a Long Island girl who happens to have great genes and is savvy enough to learn from her legendary father and his idols.
