Miranda Music: A New York Holiday

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Miranda Music
A New York Holiday

Metropolitan Room, NYC, November 29, 2015

Reviewed by Rob Lester for Cabaret Scenes

Miranda-Music-A-New-York-Holiday-Cabaret-Scenes-Magazine_212Exit Thanksgiving stage left… and enter Christmas stage right!  On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, cabaret and Christmas fans had one extra reason to be thankful—a lovely concert of many of the songs on the brand new Miranda Music CD, A New York Holiday, by the same talented singers and musicians on the disc.  As the Thanksgiving weekend was in its final hours, while many New Yorkers were still hosting family or heading back from out-of-town family visits, many members of the ever-growing Miranda Music “family” of artists and an attentive audience shared holiday cheer at a 9:30 pm show at the Metropolitan Room.  When I say “holiday cheer,” I mean that in the plural form, too.  The cheers—and appreciative applause—were loud and loving, and echoed through the room.  And I echo that enthused, entertained delight.

The disc is hot off the press, so we press people hadn’t received advance copies.  I’d only heard the sample clips on the website www.CDbaby.com where the tracks can be downloaded and will be available for purchase as a physical disc.  That had more than whetted my appetite for the concert and having the CD in my hands and ears.  My ears and hands got what they came for.  The concert, with not a word of spoken introduction for the parade of performers to break the mood or add time, began as the CD does, with Miranda Music’s founder Kitty Skrobela setting the mood of wonder and warmth with the spoken piece “The Shortest Day” along with Sean Harkness’ graceful guitar.  He returned later in the role of composer/guitar soloist for “Holy Days,” the instrumental track that appears right in the middle of the 19 selections on the disc.  It’s populated by vocalists and writers who have already recorded—or will soon, I’m told—or will soon, I hope—their own work on Miranda Music’s catalog of albums.

The disc’s producer, Richard Barone, is also one of its singers and his terrific live performance of Irving Berlin’s “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” was ebullient and invigorating and, in the absence of a lit-up Christmas tree (except for the CD cover photo) or a fuzzy Christmas sweater, brought a special brightness and warmth for sure.  And “The Christmas Tree” in question in the David Hajdu/Fred Hersch concoction of the same name is one that’s overstayed its shelf life, pine needles now brown and overdue for exit, and the live performance of this savvy song about a dead tree was slyly and wryly delivered by Karen Oberlin.  This multi-award-winning vocalist is not only also the wife of the nifty number’s talented lyricist/author/teacher/Renaissance man Hajdu, but the record label’s longest-participating artist on board. Her most recent disc is a collaboration with Harkness—A Wish.  And Marcus Simeone is the other prolific Miranda man of music with the most releases, so naturally he’s aboard for the disc and concert.  His contribution is the R&B plea “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” and ripe for his spot-on  sweet spot  soulful, soaring specialties.

And the musical gifts kept on coming, and familiar faces and/or familiar melodies appeared in quick order, with participants Lauren Fox, Peter Calo, Sue Matsuki with Tom Hubbard, Maria Ottavia, Kathleen France, Benjamin Niemczyk, Lina Koutrakos, and Musical Director Tracy Stark with her own song, “Perfect Christmas,” and Bill Zeffiro taking the piano duties for his original, “So It’s Christmas” and Rick Jensen accompanying Marissa Mulder who sang his “You’d Better Say Yes.”  As the festivities and reverence-filled event drew to a close, the audience was invited to join in, with a lyric sheet having been passed out along with a printed program.  And the lead voice was the star/ glorious-voiced angel on top of the Christmas tree ….or should we say the final singing partridge in the beyond-compare pear tree …. or the Miranda Music family tree’s Miranda/pandemonium-starter and concert-ender (or whatever tree-related description seems to fit major talent).  Anyway, it was the guy who spent the last year collecting cabaret Debut awards, Joshua Lance Dixon, raising hopes and then raising the roof with a spectacular  “Let There Be Peace on Earth.”  Singing from their seats in the audience, as they did on some other numbers, were some of the above-mentioned folks who did their choral duties effectively, with “Skrobela Bells”—I mean sleigh bells—sounded by Miranda Music’s own Mrs. Santa Claus‚I mean, Kitty Skrobela, who is profiled by Peter Haas in the first 2016 issue of the hard-copy (magazine version) of Cabaret Scenes.   

It surely put me in the Christmas spirit in the way I prefer—classy instead of schmaltzy, with a good portion of good, newer material instead of just the same old musical chestnuts roasting.  A nice start for A New York Holiday heartfelt happiness hallelujah.

Rob Lester

2015 is native New Yorker Rob Lester's eighth year as contributing writer, beginning by reviewing a salute to Frank Sinatra, whose recordings have played on his personal soundtrack since the womb. (His Cabaret Scenes Foundation member mom started him with her favorite; like his dad, he became an uber-avid record collector/ fan of the Great American Songbook's great singers and writers.) Soon, he was attending shows, seeking out up-and-comers and already-came-ups, still reading and listening voraciously. He also writes for www.NiteLifeExchange.com and www.TalkinBroadway.com, has been cabaret-centric as awards judge, panel member/co-host, and produces benefit/tribute shows, including one for us.