Eric Comstock
November 3 from 7-10:00 pm
Cafe Noctambulo at Pangea
178 Second Ave., NYC
212.995.0900
Eric returns to his Tuesday spot at Cafe Noctambulo through December. Here’s Elizabeth Ahlfors’ review of his show at the venue:
Good news for music lovers! Café Noctambulo (Spanish for “night owl”) is a casual, tasteful space, offering good food and drinks at moderate prices at a convenient East Village location. It’s where you’ll find Eric Comstock at the piano every Tuesday evening from 8 to midnight. Consider it “Throwback Tuesday,” a reminder of how New York used to be when every good hotel had a small boîte and cozy clubs were dotted all around town.
Comstock’s music, however, is not a throwback, just worthwhile songs. With meticulous taste and an encyclopedic knowledge of the pop/jazz canon, his songs make you sit up and listen…and remember. Comstock does not perform a rote medley of standards. He wraps each one as an emotional, meaningful gift.
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Every song is special, every show is different and spontaneous.
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A master at piano and vocal interpretation, Comstock spices them with nonchalant bits of trivia. On this night, before presenting a Lerner and Loewe favorite from My Fair Lady, he mentioned that lyricist Alan Jay Lerner was quite a ladies’ man and married eight times. (“Marriage was Alan’s way of saying good-bye.”) Maybe Lerner was also a creature of habit since Comstock then began the first notes of “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.”
From Burton Lane/“Yip” Harburg’s Finian’s Rainbow, he adds the spirited optimism of “That Great Come and Get It Day,” ending in foot-stomping revivalism. He went into an enticing “Old Devil Moon,” adding that the two songwriters did not really get along, not even speaking together, although they were working on this classic musical.
He shows nimble piano versatility with the racing complexity of “From This Moment On” by Cole Porter. More meditative was his rendezvous with a 1947 movie song telling a bittersweet story of romance, “Mam’selle,” (Edmund Goulding and Mack Gordon). Outstanding is the haunting thrill of “I See Your Face Before Me” (Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz). In the second set, Comstock invited his wife Barbara Fasano to come up and sing.She delivered a poignant rendition of Peggy Lee/Johnny Mandel’s “The Shining Sea.” Comstock also called up Christopher Gines, creamy baritone of Our Sinatra, with a passionate “When Do the Bells Ring for Me?” (Charles DeForest). Gines deserves additional kudos as artistic director and host of Café Noctambulo.
Comstock is a laid-back, witty whiz kid who loves the songs he’s singing. This club is a treat. Drop into the pleasing Cafe Noctambulo and enjoy one of the best.