Marina Pacowski
Spirit & Music Concert #7
June 24, 2021
Reviewed by Elliot Zwiebach
Listening to Marina Pacowski perform is like enjoying a soufflé or crêpes suzette—a delightful Gallic experience that’s light, satisfying, and fun.
Pacowski is a classically-trained pianist who grew up in France singing and playing American jazz, and she’s in top form in both genre. She’s also an amazing performer in the art of scat, as she demonstrated in the seventh of a series of online concerts she’s done during the pandemic that mix her own talents with those of guest musicians. In this latest iteration, she opted not to accompany herself on piano, as she often does, but to rely on the guitar skills of the talented Will Brahm.
Pacowski was totally mesmerizing in an ethereal reading of “A Time for Love” (Johnny Mandel/Paul Francis Webster), delivering the beautiful song’s tender emotions in a deeply expressive manner. She was also extremely effective on two songs that showed off her deeper vocal tones: expressing sincerity and gentleness in “No More Blues” (Antonio Carlos Jobim/Vinicius de Moraes) and dreamy wistfulness in Clare Fischer’s “Pensativa,” for which she said she was singing the lyrics of this instrumental classic for the first time.
Pacowski showed off her effortless scat style on an enthusiastic version of Charlie Parker’s “Moose the Mooche” (based on the chord changes of “I Got Rhythm”). Scatting was also incorporated during a gently flowing “Up Jumped Spring” (Freddie Hubbard) and a lilting “Nice Work If You Can Get It” (George and Ira Gershwin).
Brahm got to perform solo on four original songs, most effectively on the darkly moody “Aurora in Spring,” which he wrote in response to what he perceives as the dark undertones of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, he explained. This prompted Pacowski to comment when he was done that if Sleeping Beauty had heard the song, she would have wanted to wake up and listen, which Brahm said was the best compliment he’d ever gotten.
Pacowski and Brahm combined seamlessly on two short pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach that are traditionally played by a single pianist. In “Sinfonia 9,” written for three voices, Brahm, who acknowledged he is basically a jazz guitarist, slipped out of his comfort zone; he played the top melody line, while Pacowski showed off her considerable piano skills on the middle and lower lines. On “Invention 6,” Pacowski played the second line to Brahms’ top line.
The online show was performed live, without an audience, at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles, where Pacowski had created six previous online shows during the pandemic. At the end of the show she announced she had just been named the society’s Musician-in-Residence and would begin concerts with live audiences in September.
