Eric Comstock & Barbara Fasano

  • Post author:
  • Reading time:2 mins read

Eric Comstock & Barbara Fasano

Birdland Theater, NYC, September 17, 2024

Reviewed by Jacqueline Parker

Eric Comstock & Barbara Faano
Photo: Gene Reed

For lovers of the Great American Songbook, there can be no better way to spend an hour than with two masterful interpreters of that canon, vocalist/pianist Eric Comstock and  vocalist Barbara Fasano. Birdland’s downstairs theater is a gem, and in that setting they glittered and shined while presenting songs we love and some we may have never heard before.

Starting the evening with a jaunty song by John Kander and Fred Ebb is always welcoming, and “Nowadays” set the tone for a jazzy evening.  Comstock’s intelligent patter is always more anecdotal than academic, which makes it likely to be quoted at everyone’s next cocktail party.  By my account, there was nary a major composer not represented.  A Sondheim song followed by one from Noël Coward that led into “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” by Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn let you know how extensive their knowledge of this music is, and how playful they can be.

A medley of songs that were standards for Margaret Whiting followed, another indication of how the interpreters of these songs need to be remembered as well as the songwriters.

Fasano took a turn into more recent music, highlighting Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, and others.  While I usually eschew music created after I was, Fasano’s carefully curated interpretations were the perfect way for me to find them palatable. The evening concluded with “New Sun in the Sky” and “A Shine on Your Shoes” by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz.

Comstock and Fasano have a new CD coming out soon, as well as several previously released recordings you’re bound to enjoy.  Check out their websites (ericcomstock.net; barbarafasano.com) for further information on the CDs and their future engagements.

Jacqueline Parker

Like Ethel Merman, lifelong New Yorker Jacqueline Parker began her career as a stenographer. She spent more than two decades at the city's premier public agency, progressing through positions of increased responsibility after earning her BA in English from New York University (3.5 GPA/Dean’s List). She won national awards for her work in public relations and communication and had the privilege of working in the House of Commons for Stephen Ross, later Lord Ross of Newport. In the second half of her career, Jacqueline brought her innate organizational skills and creative talents to a variety of positions. While distinguishing herself in executive search, she also gave her talents to publishing, politics, writing, radio broadcasting and Delmonico's Restaurant. Most recently, she hosted Anything Goes! a radio show that paid homage to Cole Porter and by extension the world of Broadway musicals and the Great American Songbook. Other features of the show were New York living, classical music, books, restaurants, architecture and politics. This show highlighted the current Broadway scene, both in New York and around the country through performances and interviews with luminaries including Len Cariou, Charles Strouse, Laura Osnes, Steve Ross and Joan Copeland. Her pandemic project was immersion into the life, times and work of Alfred Hitchcock, about whom she has written a soon-to-be-published article. Jacqueline has been involved in a myriad of charitable causes, most notably the Walt Frazier Youth Foundation, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Sisters of Life, York Theatre, and the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival. She is a proud Founder of Hidden Water. Her greatest accomplishment is the parenting of her son, a lawyer specializing in mediation. She has many pretend grandchildren, nieces and nephews, on whom she dotes shamelessly, as well as a large circle of friends to whom she is devoted. Her interests in addition to theater and cabaret are cooking, entertaining, reading, and spending time on Queen Mary 2.

Leave a Reply