Eric Comstock & Barbara Fasano
Take Love Easy
Birdland, NYC, October 13, 2018
Reviewed by Elizabeth Ahlfors for Cabaret Scenes
Photo: Maryann Lopinto
Take Love Easy—that’s the secret of Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano, the hallmark couple of cabaret. As the Duke Ellington and John Latouche song suggests, “Make it breezy, breezy, breezy. Easy come and easy go,” and that’s how they took it for their latest show at Birdland. Joining them once again is Sean Smith on bass, supporting the mood and eloquence of the songs.
They call themselves “the guy from the Mayonnaise Belt” and “the gal from Long Island,” two distinct personalities presenting their love, individual talents, and shared knowledge of the American Songbook and jazz legends. A symbiotic mix of class, charm, and elegance, their music is guaranteed first-rate, often less familiar, and always fresh, revealing something about the performers and the world. “Autumn in New York” (Vernon Duke), a jazz standard with a lyric that as articulate as the music is resonant, is classic Comstock. Fasano shares her memories of growing up on Long Island with her perceptions of the outstanding pop songs of the day, including Joni Mitchell’s conversational “Marcie,” and a medley of “I Know a Place” (Tony Hatch/Ivor Raymonde/Mike Hawker) and “I Only Want to Be with You” (Raymonde/Hawker)—hit songs for Petula Clark and Dusty Springfield respectively.
They opened with a heartfelt ballad, Fasano singing the lyrics for “Here’s What I’m I Here For” (Harold Arlen/Ira Gershwin) and Comstock following with Dave Frishberg’s wry and bittersweet “Love Rolls In.” They follow with a witty duet by John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey, cleverness New York style, “I Wouldn’t Trade You” for “the whole Big Apple, The Circle Line, Le Cirque at nine.”
In this eclectic show, the songbook includes material with the jaunty spirit of Arlen and E.Y. Harburg’s “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” and Comstock’s gentle rendition of “Remember” (Stephen Sondheim), his pianissimo “Tomorrow Mountain,” and the duo’s look-back at “The Things We Did Last Summer” (Jule Styne/Sammy Cahn). They brought in Sean Smith to present his evocative original, “I Don’t Recall” with Comstock at the piano. Nestling on the piano bench for a sexy ditty, Comstock starts with jazz favorite by Murray Mencher and Billy Moll, “I Want a Little Girl,” and Fasano suggests “Hurry on Down” (“to my house, honey”) by Nellie Lutcher. They’ve done this pairing before and it’s a favorite.
Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano know the secret of music sophistication and lyrical savviness and, as Kander and Ebb put it, “That’s good, isn’t it grand, isn’t it great, isn’t it swell?”
