Songbook Sundays: Just in Time for Jule Styne

Post author:Bart Greenberg
Post published:February 21, 2025
Reading time:3 mins read

Songbook Sundays

Just in Time for Jule Styne

Dizzy’s Club, NYC, February 2, 2025

Reviewed by Bart Greenberg

Producer and curator Deborah Grace Winer continued her series Songbook Sundays at Dizzy’s Club with an evening devoted to the music of Jule Styne. This prolific composer, who was successful in Hollywood and on Broadway during their golden ages, produced more than 1,500 published compositions during his 50-year-plus career. Of course, the program could give only a small sample of his output. Winer added biographical tidbits about Styne throughout the show, and the songs were imbued with a jazz flavor.

The quartet of musicians, a cross-generation sampling of jazz artists, were in fine fettle and included the peripatetic Jon Weber as music director and pianist, Cameron MacIntosh on drums, Jason Clotter on bass, and Erena Terakubo on saxophone. They all had their moments to shine and provided some of the highlights of the show, as exemplified by a sax solo on “Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry” (lyrics by Sammy Cahn), a drum display for the instrumental take on “I Met a Girl” (lyris by Betty Comden & Adolph Green).

Three vocalists joined in on the fun, and each one showed a strong personality and performance styles. La Tanya Hall was all shimmering sophistication as she soothed her way through “Never, Never Land” (Comden & Green) and elegantly torched her way through the classic “I Fall in Love Too Easily” (Cahn). Matthew Scott showed his big, fluid voice as he channeled the great pop singers Styne wrote for (Dick Haymes and Frank Sinatra). He crooned “It’s Been a Long, Long Time” and “Time After Time” (both with lyrics by Cahn). Kate Korturn was the jazziest of the three. She played around with “Just in Time” (Comden & Green) and delivered a very strange version of the classic torch song “The Party’s Over” (Comden & Green); she sang it not as a self-reflective ballad but as a mean-girl taunt rather. That felt like a fresh moment.

The flaw of the show was the predictability of the song choices. Do we really need another rendition of “People” (Bob Merrill), no matter how well performed, when there are dozens of Styne’s ballads waiting to be discovered? The only obscurity on the program was “Sunday” (Chester Conn, Bennie Krueger, & Ned Miller), Styne’s first hit song and a fun rarity sung by Hall. More of these moments would have elevated the show from highly enjoyable to something special.

Tags: Sammy Cahn, ASA, Vocalists, Erena Terakubo, The Party’s Over, Jon Weber, Chester Conn, CD, I Met a Girl, I Fall in Love Too Easily, Bob Merrill, Dizzy’s Club, Singer, Betty Corden, Great American Songbook, Bart Greenberg, American Songbook, Bass, Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry, Kate Korturn, Broadway, Never Never Land, Nightclubs, drums, Cabaret Reviews, Bennie Krueger, Cabaret, People, Musicals, Music Director, CD Reviews, Ned Miller, Broadway Musicals, Matthew Scott, Lyricist, SOngbook Sundays, Dick Haymes, Just in Time, saxophone, Deborah Grace Winer, Comden & Green, It’s Been a Long Long Time, NYC, Jason Clotter, Clubs, Adolph Green, American Songbook Association, Pianist, Cameron Macintosh, Time After Time, Frank Sinatra, Sunday, songwriter, Just in Time for Jule Styne, Cabaret Scenes, composer

Bart Greenberg

Bart Greenberg first discovered cabaret a few weeks after arriving in New York City by seeing Julie Wilson and William Roy performing Stephen Sondheim and Cole Porter outdoors at Rockefeller Center. It was instant love for both Ms. Wilson and the art form. Some years later, he was given the opportunity to create his own series of cabaret shows while working at Tower Records. "Any Wednesday" was born, a weekly half-hour performance by a singer promoting a new CD release. Ann Hampton Callaway launched the series. When Tower shut down, Bart was lucky to move the program across the street to Barnes & Noble, where it thrived under the generous support of the company. The series received both The MAC Board of Directors Award and The Bistro Award. Some of the performers who took part in "Any Wednesday" include Barbara Fasano and Eric Comstock, Tony Desare, Andrea Marcovicci, Carole Bufford, the Karens, Akers, Mason and Oberlin, and Julie Wilson. Privately, Greenberg is happily married to writer/photographer Mark Wallis, who as a performance artist in his native England gathered a major following as "I Am Cereal Killer."