For those that were lucky enough to be there, TCCAN made a vivid debut at Hell's Kitchen on the last Monday in June. We have actively been scouting alternative venues and were lucky to be scheduled onto their summer calendar.
Our team of 8 were led by Steven Hobert at the piano. A vocal crowd of friends and curious visitors was on hand to give each a warm welcome. The space is a comfortable fit and there is a full bar and kitchen available. The evening had a jazz leaning, but everyone brought their A-game in both selections and stories shared. Here's hoping to a relationship that continues, because the evening was exactly what cabaret should be about.
* This takes away nothing from our usual Saturday night Salon which was held 2 nights earlier in St Paul at the Town House. Two great evenings, new and old material and a Bingo winner in our Bingo Blitz - congrats to Jeff Walkup who attended double salons and was able to come up with a winning card.
In case you are finding us on the blog and not our regular mailings or Facebook page...
For our upcoming June monthly Salon, audiences will have not one, but two opportunities to see our full TCCAN membership in action. Once, on Saturday the 21st at our usual digs in St Paul @ Town House, and a separate slate of singers Monday the 23rd @ Hell's Kitchen in Minneapolis.
For the special event, we are branding it out TCCAN Bingo Blitz and encouraging our loyal audiences to find us at both places by filling out a Bingo card that is printed with all singers. For each initial you grab at a performance, it puts you one step closer to a winning Bingo. Besides our Salon rosters, the cards also feature a few "wild card" squares where members are doing solo gigs around town also. One of the winning entries will win a TCCAN basket with CD merchandise from some of our members so you can take the music home with you. Visit our website to view and download the complete card and more venue details.
TCCAN website
We had just talked about this marvelous show at our last workshop and how it was not possible to access past episodes. Alas; on a new search, there is a website now where you can find all shows and stream them at your leisure.
If you are not familiar with it, Radio Deluxe is a syndicated radio show hosted by jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli and his wife, actress Jessica Molaskey. Together they broadcast a 2 hour weekly show from their living room in NYC. I am an avid fan of both. Certainly his recordings are frequent and easy to find. But she has a fabulous voice and can be found doing both musical theater as well as studio recordings of her own. Although the show prefaces itself as a Jazz program, it is much more than that. I find it a cabaret show with great dialogue between the two of them along with tremendous insights on classic gems and also an exposure to great new talent and material. It fits all the criteria we look for in our cabaret work; intimate, great music variety and always a story angle.
Their new webpage gives a blurb comparing them to a contemporary Louis Prima and Keely Smith which is a flattering choice. Last night I chose a recent episode which highlighted an interview with Jason Robert Brown and his material which I adore. Today is a show of Sexy Songs including Peggy Lee, Ella, Kurt Elling and Nat King Cole. Each episode gives a synopsis, some are composer driven, others have themes. But on the stream it gives complete track listing for each tune with the artist. What's even better - the stream plays without commercials or station identification. If you are seeking out new material to sing..... you won't find a better resource. Guests abound. It will become my new work staple! And I am also adding it to our links list!
Radio Deluxe
This is a follow-up recap of our recent Education workshop that was all about Patter composition. Les and Heidi had done some great research that was enlightening for us and a great conversation starter.
He began with both the roots and meaning of the word and we found that it differs much from the semantics that we use it in a cabaret setting. By definition; it is just "meaningless chatter," "gibberish," and "talking at length without saying anything significant." All of these are in complete opposition to our intent as performers. It harkens back to the early stage days of vaudeville where it was likely meant as filler between acts to stall for time.
Next came a very pointed critique of patter and how it relates to cabaret work that we strive for now; this is from critic Roy Sander who writes for the Manhattan Association of Cabaret. "Time was when cabaret was a performing arts form in which audience
members sat at tables and the people on stage had a job to do: to
entertain the audience. Period. Rather simple, eh? Alas, at some point
during the past decade or so, cabaret took a wrong turn. Today, a
growing number of people, especially recent entrants into the field,
seem to think that cabaret is something else—some kind of mushy,
touchy-feely group-therapy session, in which we are all there to share
in the performer’s life and feelings." Roy goes on quite extensively in a tirade about the lack of need for any of this sort of patter. A complete link to his query "It's Not About You" is below.
Sander - It's Not About You
All of this generated much reaction, especially from our veteran members that attended the Yale Conference which is founded on the exact opposite point of view. Unless you are exposing yourself and being authentic in your storytelling, it is not true cabaret. We continue to have very good open conversations on what balance to follow. Icons like Mabel Mercer use little if any dialogue at all. Bobby Short plays the piano and only introduces historical context about his songs. We talked about the fine line between rehearsing your patter, keeping it spontaneous, and then being able to ad lib without hitting roadblocks. Some of us navigate this slippery slope differently. Our recent showcase challenged the notions of narrative while being true to patter by tying story into song - not necessarily by the same person. I even brought up the concept of performing an entire cabaret set as an alter-ego like Bette Midler has done with "Delores Delago" - or we recently saw our own Barbara do with a ukelele and hula-hoop. How about the stretching the truth to make a story more interesting? - Sure! All of these push the limits of what we expect and define as cabaret. TCCAN is trying to establish parameters to follow while also giving freedom for each member to be genuine and unique. All food for thought!
the American Songbook goes hand in hand with what we generally think of as cabaret material. Yes, we can draw from all corners of the musical spectrum, but the essence of what we sing is usually bundled up in the classic composers from Porter, Gershwin, Rodgers, Arlen.... what is known as the American Songbook. I myself am doing a mini-set of Irving Berlin for this month's salon.
So Jen has found a great new resource nugget for us. It appears to be a new series offered on local PBS affiliate out of New Jersey. The American Songbook at NJPAC (New Jersey Performing Arts Ctr @ Newark.) So far there have been only 6 taped episodes in 2014, but if you have an hour of extra time, it is a great alternative to Netflix. It is marketed as a sort of Inside the Actors Studio that mixes concert performance with a simple piano or trio alongside moderated audience conversations. These are hosted by Ted Chapin who I am very familiar with via the Rodgers & Hammerstein Foundation and he campaigns heavily for music preservation. Most of the artists are from across the river in NYC like Marin Mazie, Rebecca Luker et al. But it also offers up more recent work by Motown's Ashford & Simpson as well as older chestnuts like Sandy Stewart (wife of Moose Charlap.)
It is another blurred line between cabaret, concert and the jazz stage - but always worth a look to see what else is out there.
NJ Public Television
This is an event posted after the fact. But I am doubting anyone really had the time or resources to make the trip to NYC and catch the benefit event. It was last Weds. the 19th at the Laurie Beechman theater. I mention it because I think Noel Coward had a particular slant towards cabaret songs. Some came from theater pieces, others were topical songs of the day - most which never reached the influence of say Gershwin or Porter. But they are witty pieces nonetheless, many involving sprawling lyrics colored with character. I know I sang one recently in our showcase "Why Do the Wrong People Travel?" and it continued to gauge audience reaction near a century later.
The evening in New York is/was a benefit for the Mabel Mercer Foundation, devoted to fostering cabaret. And in true cabaret format it was a mix of historical bon-mots of Coward by lecturer David Garrad Lowe with musical interludes by a popular slate of artists like D.C. Anderson, Lauren Fox and others. Perhaps this is a different spin that TCCAN could put on our Showcase format in the future which remains relevant to our own cabaret work but puts it in the context of a specified arc for an evening of entertainment...
This posting has nothing to do with cabaret, but yet is everything a cabaret artist should be about. I am referring to Bette Midler of course. Her name has resurfaced again as of late with her memorable performance at the OSCARS and as a recommended feed on my Twitter account.
I am hoping that many of us have seen her on stage. She can take a whole arena circus show with mermaids in wheel chairs and make it seem like a private pool party in our own back yards. Her sense of connection is faultless to everyone in that auditorium. And her ability to get inside a song and make it uniquely hers is impeccable. And not only that - she can cross into ANY genre without missing a beat. A true showman.
But
what I have come to admire about her even more as she "matures," is her
sense of an artist being true to herself. As I shared with a few at out
membership meeting she is not a manufactured celebrity. The stuff she
spits out in a few words on Twitter is authentic and witty. Her website
is the same; from her outlook on life with New Year's resolutions to
features on girl power and in depth journals on the albums she has
recorded. Old scanned photo pics and articles on greening up the planet.
You never feel she is hawking a product, but sharing a passionate part
of her life. Bumps bruises and all without apology. I hope many of you
agree with me.
BetteMidler.com
