Paula West
An Evening with Paula West: Birthday Celebration
Marin Jazz, San Rafael, CA, April 4, 2025
Reviewed by Steve Murray
Paula West, San Francisco’s song stylist with a social conscience, took to the Marin Jazz stage to celebrate and protest before a partisan audience of fans. This was the celebration of another revolution around the sun, and a chance to voice our collective horror at the current state of affairs. The show wasn’t all Sturm und Drang as shown in the opener “I Love Paris” (Cole Porter), which she used to introduce the stellar trio of music director/arranger/pianist Adam Schulman, bassist Doug Miller, and percussionist Deszon Clairborne. West always acknowledges her musicians and depends on their support and she is generous with them.
The first “message” song was Randy Newman’s “Short People,” a sly satire of prejudice to which she added “we don’t need no orange people.” She followed that with the 1932 Great Depression song “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” by Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney. Given the current stock market crash, who couldn’t identify with the everyman’s dream foiled by economic collapse? An abstract jazz-flavored opening led to the haunting “Space Oddity,” David Bowie’s portrayal of the alienation of an astronaut. Could this be a not-so-subtle nod to the unexpected nine-month delay in returning astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to earth?
West is an unapologetic lover of Bob Dylan’s songs, and the first set featured three entries from his catalogue: “Tambourine Man,” her signature interpretation of “Like a Rolling Stone,” and “Don’t Think Twice.” My recommendation would be for her to ditch “Tambourine Man.” It has too many verses, and it’s far too abstract for cabaret.
Two more message songs were featured into the second set: South Pacific’s powerful “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught,” Rodgers and Hammerstein’s controversial song about bigotry and racism, and John Lennon’s “Imagine,” a song of honest hope and optimism. Her take on Lennon’s plea was not delicate; it was forceful and deliberate in demanding peace.
With her velvety contralto and slight vibrato, West knows how to accentuate lyrics using changes in tone and volume, and she still likes long, sustaining notes. She included some favorites in the mix: Oscar Brown Jr.’s “The Snake,” Jobim’s “Waters of March” with its tricky wordplay, an old Ethelr Waters blues tune “Bread and Gravy,” and a lovely cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.” West was still putting her agenda forward, and that is what we love about her.
