Sue Matsuki
Kral Space: Celebrating Irene Kral
Don’t Tell Mama, NYC, May 2, 2025
Review by Betsyann Faiella
Photo by Eric Stephen Jacobs
On May 2 at Don’t Tell Mama, Sue Matsuki elegantly performed a superb set of music that the great jazz singer Irene Kral popularized during her 30-year career. Kral, who was the younger sister of Roy Kral of the team of Jackie and Roy, began her career at the age of 16 and died young, singing to within days of her death. Kral sang some standards, but she was mostly known and revered for singing the many beautiful and/or quirky gems that were snapped up by other singers after hearing Kral sing them (for example, by her own friend Carmen McRae). She had a unique style, a gentle, almost undetectable vibrato, beautiful diction, and the skill of understatement. She is highly regarded among jazz artists. Matsuki took the name of the show, Kral Space, from Kral’s 1977 album for the Catalyst label, which she recorded with pianist Alan Broadbent.
Matsuki’s tribute was filled with many of the most delectable numbers in Kral’s repertoire. After opening with “The Song Is You” (Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II), she followed with warm and knowing interpretations of four songs by writers Kral favored throughout her career. “Small Day Tomorrow” (Bob Dorough/Fran Landesman) was appropriately languid and nocturnal, and “It’s Nice Weather for Ducks” (Tommy Wolf/Fran Landesman) was a song Matsuki has been singing for many years, having covered it on her 2001 debut recording A New Take. She has not lost the sardonic, but amused, attitude of this song.
“Love Came on Stealthy Fingers” (Dorough) is one of many examples of songs Kral recorded first and other singers did subsequently. I’ve always considered this song to be really special, and it has one of the most unusual titles in the pop/jazz canon. No one speaks like that; it is poetry in motion. Matsuki nailed the feeling of slightly reluctant, mature, and inevitable love with her dreamy performance.
Matsuki was accompanied by a trio with superior chops: Her longtime music director, Gregory Toroian was on piano along with Tom Hubbard on bass, and David Silliman on drums. “Wow” is all I can say about this combination of pros; I wouldn’t have minded one more solo from Mr. Silliman.
Toroian and Matsuki paid a charming and skilled tribute to Jackie and Roy with “The Glory of Love” (Billy Hill) as they duetted and scatted together. Toroian is a masterful player who is definitely at home on the jazz side of life.
Matsuki included two songs by Steve Allen, who was an early influence in Kral’s career: the ballads “Spring Is Where You Are” and “Impossible.” Kral became the vocalist on the Steve Allen Show in 1959, which led to her first recording, SteveIreneo!, which featured songs written by—you guessed it—Allen.
I can’t sufficiently stress the quality of this tribute to Kral. Matsuki’s research was deep (at Toroian’s suggestion she has been studying Kral, for years). She succeeded in painting a vivid picture of a relatively obscure jazz artist (obscure to cabaret goers) with limited but well-chosen anecdotes and history lessons.
I would not have left one thing out. It was perfection, and Matsuki was in great voice. She ended the set with “You Are There,” a vivid dreamscape of memory and longing. It is one of my absolute favorite songs (lyrics by Dave Frishberg and music by Johnny Mandel). There was much beauty and humor packed into this wonderful show.
