Jeanne Gies
Jeanne Gies Celebrates International Women’s Day
Cabaret at Germano’s, Baltimore, MD, March 8, 2018
By Cyd Wolf for Cabaret Scenes
Jeanne Gies has recorded with jazz greats, penned lyrics (most notably for “Window” (“da janela”), featuring music by Manu Lafer, is a licensed voice specialist, and presides over the annual Jazz Vocal and Guitar Workshop in Bolzano, Italy. She showcased these various talents at the Cabaret at Germano’s. Her voice mesmerized in an exquisite tribute to women, with unique jazz arrangements of songs sung by, written by, or saluting women such as Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Suzanne Vega, and Jennifer Warnes.
Gies started with “Old Devil Moon” in a nod to the feminine personification of the moon. In her introduction of “Song of Bernadette,” which refers to a young French girl in the mid-19th century who claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary on several occasions and was canonized, she explained that Jennifer Warnes, whose given name was Bernadette, was inspired to write the song when visiting Lourdes. That haunting piece was followed by Gies’ insistent rendition of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.” A powerful arrangement of “Diamonds and Rust” was followed by “Mrs. Robinson” and “Caramel” and the first set concluded with her own masterful “Translation,” co-written with Manu Lafer and Howard Alden.
The second set included “Carey,” “Both Sides Now,” “Fire and Rain,” and another Gies gem, “Gabriel,” about the joy of watching her nephew as a baby. She concluded with Randy Newman’s “Feels Like Home” with a gracious nod to the Cabaret at Germano’s.
Geis made every song her own, but also reflected the brilliance of the songwriters who will forever be remembered through these universally loved songs. In her own writing, she herself certainly deserves a place among these masters.
Her excellent vocals were well supported by instrumentals from her trio—Swedish-born composer, recording artist and multi-instrumentalist Michael Rorby on trombone, and Baltimore artists and educators Michael Raitzyk on guitar and Jeff Reed on bass —playing with an eloquence that left us breathless.
