Dolores Scozzesi and Dori Amarilio
Duo
Tom Rolla’s Gardenia, West Hollywood, CA, February 22, 2019
Reviewed by Elliot Zwiebach for Cabaret Scenes
Two musicians got together on a cabaret stage for what they called an intimate conversation, and they allowed an enthusiastic audience to listen in. Dolores Scozzesi sang and Dori Amarilio played the guitar as the sole accompanist; together they explored their emotions and exposed their passions and creativity in a collaborative performance that was honest and entertaining.
Scozzesi is a jazz singer with a smoky, powerful voice and a sensual stage persona who channels her deep passion for the music into every song. Her voice swoops and soars as her emotions dictate—holding a note here, repeating a single word there—as she follows her heart to find her truth.
Amarilio is a multi-instrument musician, composer, and arranger with an extraordinary gift for eliciting sweet, delicate, dulcet notes from his instrument and, as of this show, a singer.
Though Scozzesi said after the show that she missed the percussive sounds that usually drive her style, she told the audience that her decision to use only guitar accompaniment was “exciting and scary”; she did it, she explained, “because I like to stretch myself to do something different and interesting.”
Her willingness to try something different worked, with the two musicians always in sync. Although they had clearly rehearsed, the musical and verbal conversation between them seemed to contain a great deal of spontaneity, with each appearing to surprise the other at certain points with their respective musicianship.
The show included several standards, usually abetted by a Latin-inspired beat, including a sweet, gentle jazz-waltz tempo on “My One and Only Love” (Robert Mellin/Guy Wood); simple, delicate phrasing on “Weaver of Dreams” (Victor Young/John Elliott); and swinging versions of “When Did You Leave Heaven?” (Richard A. Whiting/Walter Bullock); and “Here Comes the Sun” (George Harrison).
One of the evening’s highlights was Scozzesi’s stunning performance of the complex “Harlem Nocturne” (Earle Hagen/Dick Rogers), delivering the dark, haunting lyrics penned by Mel Tormé with thoughtful commitment that belied what she said was her original reluctance to tackle the piece for her latest album, Here Comes the Sun.
Amarilio moved beyond instrumentals to make his singing debut—demonstrating a soft, low-pitched voice—on a pair of songs in Hebrew written by his father, Israeli composer Moni Amarilio: “Libavtini,” a song that expresses love for both a woman and for the city of Jerusalem, and “Sof,” about how the end of one experience is simply the beginning of another. The duo also duetted on a fast-paced “It’s All Right with Me” (Cole Porter).
The evening featured a guest appearance by Keri Kelsey, who sang a simple, unadorned “Corcovado” (Antonio Carlos Jobim), followed by Scozzesi clearly enjoying herself on the bossa rhythm of “Upside Down” by Djavan, one of Brazil’s contemporary composers, that included scatting harmonies from Amarilio.
Scozzesi opened and closed the show with two signature songs: a sensual, swaying take on Bob Dylan’s “One More Cup of Coffee,” and a beautiful rendition in English and French of “Autumn Leaves” (Joseph Kozma/Jacques Prevert, with English lyrics by Johnny Mercer) that included her own vocalese about what she said was “a broken love affair in France a long time ago.”
As she continues to strive for something different, Scozzesi said she plans a show called Jazz Poems: Jazz and the Spoken Word, scheduled for May 18 at the Gardenia.
