Jane Monheit and Joel Frahm
Jane Monheit Valentine’s Day Celebration
Birdland, NYC, February 11, 2016
Reviewed by Ron Forman for Cabaret Scenes
Jane Monheit’s Valentine’s Day Celebration gave her the opportunity to bring her amazing sound and unique takes to some of the best love songs chosen from the Great American Songbook. She shares the front of the stage with jazz saxophonist Joel Frahm, and they combine to produce a very enjoyable Valentine’s tribute to love. Monheit’s sound and style have been compared to those of Ella Fitzgerald’s, but, in addition her remarkably emotive facial expressions and her charmingly relaxed persona, she’s a delight to watch and listen to.
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Monheit opened with the Gershwins’ “Soon,” which allowed her to scat à la Ella. The number, as did most of Monheit’s material, featured an amazing saxophone solo by Frahm.
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Monheit is a true jazz singer in that she brings her own interpretation to every song that she performs, as she did with her very seductive “There’s a Small Hotel.
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” Performing with just piano to back her, she presented an excruciatingly beautiful and touching “Lucky to be Me,” made extra special because her parents were sitting in the audience. A story about her grandfather writing out the lyrics to “I Used to Be Color Blind” shortly before he passed away, led into a truly remarkable performance of this, one of my personal favorites by Irving Berlin. Opening with a lengthy solo by Frahm, Monheit dared to do an un-Sinatra-ish “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” uncharacteristically wandering away from the original melody, but, nonetheless preserving the identity of the song.
Monheit had Frahm join her on vocals with a hilarious “Tonight You Belong to Me.
” She closed with a medley of two emotional ballads, beginning with an a cappella performance of the seldom heard verse to “I’ve Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good” and leading into as beautiful a performance of “My Funny Valentine” as I can recall hearing.
