Eric Comstock & Barbara Fasano

Warmer This Winter

Birdland, NYC, January 25, 2018

Reviewed by Elizabeth Ahlfors for Cabaret Scenes

“Haven’t We Met?,”  a Kenny Rankin/Ruth Batchelor jazz waltz, was the opener for Warmer This Winter, Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano’s Birdland salute to the chilly months. Since cabaret’s charismatic twosome have already celebrated every other season, why not winter? They always manage to surprise with a mix of classy, lesser-known songs along with, of course, the familiar faves. They were joined by Sean Smith on bass.
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Songs to warm up any chilly evening were “Be Warmer This Winter” by Stan Freeman and Franklin Underwood, and “Sleep Warm” (Alan and Marilyn Bergman/Lew Spence). These moved into snappy, swinging standards including “Not a Care in the World” (Vernon Duke/John Latouche) and Rube Bloom and Harry Ruby’s “Give Me the Simple Life.
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” The couple closed their show with Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz’s “New Sun in the Sky” and the debonair “A Shine on Your Shoes.
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In between, the duo delivered some of the loveliest love songs you may not know so well. Tackling the noise of urban living, “I Cannot Hear the City” (Marvin Hamlisch/Craig Carnelia) offered lines like “I give you strength, but also set you free/I offer you you/I offer you me.” This is paired with “I Wanna Be Yours” by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh with the sharp, intelligent lyrics of Carolyn Leigh. The ode to love continued with “Love Like Ours” (the Bergmans/Dave Grusin) and embracing the audience, a joyous “Old Friends” by Stephen Sondheim.  

The great American female lyricist, Dorothy Fields, joined Jerome Kern to write one of the most sophisticated ballads, “Remind Me,” given an arresting delivery by Fasano. Also outstanding is the arrangement of Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies,” which is not surprising—this couple is known for sharp jazz instincts and smart phrasing. It’s teamwork here: Comstock’s piano mastery and Sean Smith’s somber bass behind Fasano’s subtle nuances of the word “blue,” reflecting the melancholy and reassurances in Berlin’s minor and major chords.

Fasano reminisced about her teen days in summer, driving to the beach with the radio blasting Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road.” Comstock went for a bluesy confession in “Living Double in a World of Trouble” (Oscar Brown, Jr).  Looking forward a month or more, they presented Annie Dinerman (“Valentine”) and Paul Simon (“April Come She Will”).

They started off the centennial for Leonard Bernstein with some Bernstein/Betty Comden/Adolph Green classics, including “Lucky to Be Me” and “It’s Love,” leading toward the ending with “Some Other Time.”

“Some other time” came at the encore: a sultry “Witchcraft” (Coleman/Leigh) and Philip Springer/Carolyn Leigh’s “How Little We Know,” Comstock at the keyboard and vocalist Fasano, playfully teasing Smith (Bacall-style) as they sizzled to a close.