Cabaret Scenes CD Review - Michael Feinstein & Cheyenne Jackson

Well, how fabulous is this?

Early on in their joint outing Mike & Chey reference Steve & Eydie and these guys sound as if they’ve been performing side by side (how that number escaped them escapes me) as long as the swinging Lawrences have been marqueeing in Vegas.

And speaking of glitz: from the intro, with which musical director John Oddo and his fine selection of musicians propel you into this musically toothsome twosome of a CD, one makes it an aural threesome by joining in the excitement of a perfect pairing of voices. “I’m Nothing Without You” (Cy Coleman/David Zippel) is untrue, of course, but a double cheeseburger beats peanut butter (yum in itself) without jelly. I’m just saying.

While taking solo turns between couplings, each does well his own thing. Feinstein’s voice has not merely matured so much as grown even more depth and breadth of lower register, and in “Old Friend” (Nancy Ford/Gretchen Cryer) his tricky tremor prickles the listeners’ follicles to shivering effect and he exponentially kicks it up for “So in Love” (Cole Porter). Jackson deserves a very big hand for medleying “I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes)“ (Hoagy Carmichael)/”Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” (Duke Ellington/Bob Russell). I’d get this disc for the phrase “of course I do” 14-16 seconds in—and when he delivers “I’m Checkin’ Out—Goombye” you are sure he can challenge just about anyone to a jazz-off—anywhere, anytime.

How to temper these adulations? Cheyenne’s placement of some notes perhaps could be snubbed as too plaintively probiscusly shaded, and Michael at certain points covers and flattens his sound—not the note, the sound. Their Elvis cum Righteous Brothers impersonations in “If I Can Dream” (W. Earl Brown) might be slightly/outrageously over-the-top. Here’s what I say about all that: Can’t stop listening.

They embracingly duet “We Kiss in a Shadow” (Rodgers & Hammerstein) and CJ bows it all out with the high-on-my-top-ten (George/Ira Gershwin’s) “Someone to Watch Over Me."

It’s that fabulous!

Noah Tree
Cabaret Scenes
March 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org

Michael Feinstein
& Cheyenne Jackson

The Power of Two

Harbinger Records, Ltd.



	Michael Feinstein & Cheyenne Jackson The Power of Two Harbinger Records, Ltd.
Well, how fabulous is this? Early on in their joint outing Mike & Chey reference Steve & Eydie and these guys sound as if they’ve been performing side by side (how that number escaped them escapes me) as long as the swinging Lawrences have been marqueeing in Vegas. And speaking of glitz: from the intro, with which musical director John Oddo and his fine selection of musicians propel you into this musically toothsome twosome of a CD, one makes it an aural threesome by joining in the excitement of a perfect pairing of voices. “I’m Nothing Without You” (Cy Coleman/David Zippel) is untrue, of course, but a double cheeseburger beats peanut butter (yum in itself) without jelly. I’m just saying. While taking solo turns between couplings, each does well his own thing. Feinstein’s voice has not merely matured so much as grown even more depth and breadth of lower register, and in “Old Friend” (Nancy Ford/Gretchen Cryer) his tricky tremor prickles the listeners’ follicles to shivering effect and he exponentially kicks it up for “So in Love” (Cole Porter). Jackson deserves a very big hand for medleying “I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes)“ (Hoagy Carmichael)/”Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” (Duke Ellington/Bob Russell). I’d get this disc for the phrase “of course I do” 14-16 seconds in—and when he delivers “I’m Checkin’ Out—Goombye” you are sure he can challenge just about anyone to a jazz-off—anywhere, anytime. How to temper these adulations? Cheyenne’s placement of some notes perhaps could be snubbed as too plaintively probiscusly shaded, and Michael at certain points covers and flattens his sound—not the note, the sound. Their Elvis cum Righteous Brothers impersonations in “If I Can Dream” (W. Earl Brown) might be slightly/outrageously over-the-top. Here’s what I say about all that: Can’t stop listening. They embracingly duet “We Kiss in a Shadow” (Rodgers & Hammerstein) and CJ bows it all out with the high-on-my-top-ten (George/Ira Gershwin’s) “Someone to Watch Over Me." It’s that fabulous! Noah Tree Cabaret Scenes March 2010 www.cabaretscenes.org