Dave Fortin: Contrasts

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Dave Fortin

Contrasts

Tom Rolla’s Gardenia, West Hollywood, CA, April 21, 2016

Reviewed by Elliot Zwiebach for Cabaret Scenes

Dave-Fortin-Cabaret-Scenes-Magzine_212Dave Fortin is a passionate musician who freely conveys deep feelings when he’s performing. His style is basically cool and laid-back, right up to the moment he’s swept up in the emotion of a song, at which point he lets the feelings come out, and his cabaret show reflected that—warm, sweet, free-flowing, powerful and very informal.

It was a very relaxed show. In fact, the first third didn’t adhere to the theme of “contrasts” at all, but consisted instead of what Fortin calls “karmakazi jukebox,” in which he asked audience members to choose songs from a list of 70 he provided. He ultimately performed six numbers simply sitting on a stool, strumming an acoustic guitar, with the house lights up—a consummate musician doing his thing in front of a roomful of spellbound, appreciative fans.

As a singer, Fortin gives full expression to each lyric with powerful, often gritty vocals while his flashing dark eyes convey the joy, pain, anger, frustration or other emotion of the moment. When he’s playing guitar he’s relaxed—on bass he sizzles—and when he intersperses trumpet solos between lyrics, he’s soulful.

One of the high points of the spontaneous part of the show was a warm version of the Beatles classic “Eleanor Rigby,” in which he put his own spin on the familiar lyrics, moving from simple and straightforward to touching, emotive and deeply felt. There was also a delightful take on Buck Owens’ “Together Again” and a sweetly evocative “A Kiss to Build a Dream On” (Bert Kalmar/Harry Ruby/Oscar Hammerstein II) that left the audience sighing.

Fortin kicked off the formal part of the show with Cole Porter’s “I Get a Kick Out of You,” plunking out the chords on an upright bass, accompanied brilliantly by Mike Smith on cajon, cymbals and cowbell.

The pair was then joined by pianist Lori Donato to form a powerful musical trio for the evening, highlighted by a breezy “Rio de Janiero Blue” (Richard Torrance). He clearly enjoyed himself on what he called “the most mean-spirited song ever written”—“I Wanna Be Around” (Johnny Mercer/Sadie Vimmerstedt)—that allowed him to show off what he called his “evil impulses” as he delivered the song with a devilish smile on his face.

The evening also included a sizzling “lovers’ quarrel” between Fortin and guest Larry Davis, a performer with a sinuous, provocative persona, who sang “Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)” (Jimmy Davis/Roger “Ram”  Ramirez, James Sherman) in counterpoint to Fortin’s “Mean to Me” (Fred E.

Ahlert/Roy Turk)—a dynamic duet that ended with a quick smooch.

Fortin closed the show with a significant contrast to his usual repertoire—adapting “The Music of the Night” (Andrew Lloyd Webber/Charles Hart, from The Phantom of the Opera) to his own soft style and hitting the song’s peak notes extremely well, adding a nice grace note to the music of his night.

Elliot Zwiebach

Elliot Zwiebach loves the music of The Great American Songbook and classic Broadway, with a special affinity for Rodgers and Hammerstein. He's been a professional writer for 45 years and a cabaret reviewer for five. Based in Los Angeles, Zwiebach has been exposed to some of the most talented performers in cabaret—the famous and the not-so-famous—and enjoys it all. Reviewing cabaret has even pushed him into doing some singing of his own — a very fun and liberating experience that gives him a connection with the performers he reviews.