Lori Donato
Sojourn
Tom Rolla’s Gardenia, West Hollywood, CA, September 24, 2016
Reviewed by Mary Bogue for Cabaret Scenes
After 30 years in the business, singing around Los Angeles and years of criss-crossing Europe and entertaining on cruise ships, Lori Donato made her debut at the famed Gardenia. In Donato’s words, it was time to “Start the party.
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Conveying the story of her life from the formative years in South Dakota where “my life was a mess,” she left behind her career as a high school teacher and took a major leap of faith, landing her in Berlin. Along the way she ended up married, unmarried, in Sweden and the world was her stage.
She opened with “The Song Is You” (Oscar Hammerstein/Jerome Kern) and then put a Latin spin on “This Could Be the Start of Something” (Steve Allen). In grand voice and nightclub style, the statuesque Donato delivered a terrific “Woman in the Moon” (Paul Williams/Kenny Ascher) and moved seamlessly from stage to behind the piano to sing, in French, “Lili Marlene” (Norbert Schultze/Hans Leip).
She tore up the house describing the men in her life with “Broken Down Kitchen Blues” (Cami Thompson) as the crowd enthusiastically whooped, hollered and applauded.
We traveled with her on her cruise ship adventures with “Rio de Janeiro Blue” (Richard Torrance/John Haeny) and a super assist from drummer Jack LeCompte. Switching gears, Rick Hils skillfully jazzed up “Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home” (Johnny Mercer/Harold Arlen). A “cougar” before it was fashionable, her “Bye Bye Country Boy” (Blossom Dearie/Jack Segal) was stunning. Donato brought it all home as the audience clapped along, and she and Hils took us on a “Detour” (Paul Westmoreland). Her Duke Ellington mash-up was masterful, and the encore, “Angels on Your Pillow,” composed by the present Paul Horner (lyrics by Peggy Lee) was just heavenly.
The next stop on her journey is Palm Springs for her show at The Purple Room.
