I think many of our members have their own connections with Maud, certainly via Arne. I myself don't know her but have seen her work around town several times. Although she is not a TCCAN member, she got some incredible accolades in the Chicago Tribune.
Recently she appeared at the Chicago Cabaret Festival, which is an off shoot of the Mabel Mercer Foundation in NY. The Festival is not an annual event, but this marked the fourth time it was held since 2002 where it was hosted at the Palmer House. We often think that our genre has lost its luster, but at events like this, it showcases the royalty that we have singing classics from what we still refer to as the Great American Songbook. I have no idea how Maud was fortunate enough to have secured a slot on that roster, but boy did she get some rave reviews from Howard Reich. "The biggest revelation of the
night had to be Maud Hixson, a Minnesota-based singer making her Chicago
debut ... leaving at least one listener wanting much
more." There were takes on "the alacrity of her approach to rhythm", "her slightly gauzy
tone and breezy phrasing", "her inherent swing
sensibility driving the music unstoppably forward." Quite the glowing praise. This serves us all well in terms of putting us on the map as cabaret artists here in the Twin Cities.
Chicago Tribune - Cabaret Festival review
Sometimes a cabaret singer just needs to make a living! Our TCCAN roster has those who do Senior gigs, Musical Theater or sets in dive bars just so we can also do the music we love. There was a time in the recent past where corporate America also appreciated our talents and had the money to invest in the music industry.
I just caught a news tidbit about both Kristen Wiig & Will Ferrell collaborating on a new film musical about this bygone era that is a cross between the Broadway stage and a Buick commercial. I was lucky enough to do a handful in the early 90's before this sort of thing evaporated; Maurice's, Lifetouch, Alpine spices and of course Target. These events were not cheap talent shows, they were really extravaganzas with big bucks. The biggest I did was a trade show for Dr. Pepper in Dallas TX, where they flew us down, hired a full orchestra and even live circus animals on stage. I also was lucky enough to land one at a resort in Puerto Rico where costumes and sound equipment were held hostage at customs.
I was directed to a fabulous website that shares this forgotten era of industrial musicals. Writers like Kander & Ebb, Cy Coleman and Lerner & Loewe were not above lending their talents to original scores. Headliners like Florence Henderson, Peggy Lee & Mitzi Gaynor thought nothing less of themselves for taking the gig either. There is now a reader's version coffee table book called Everything's Coming Up Profits by Steve Young & Sport Murphy. There are companion discs for 3 decades of 50's, 60's & 70's tracks. It has been a revelation as I piece together a Cy Coleman set with loose trails of his material scattered along the route here. The list of products is mind boggling: J.C. Penney, Coca Cola, Ford Motors, Seagram's, Xerox, General Electric..... Fascinating nostalgia.
Check out the site and listen to these tracks!
Everythings' Coming up Profits
Looks we are doing something right and somewhat of a role model for other markets across the country. I subscribe to a few mailings related to cabaret calendars. One of them is the Chicago Cabaret Professionals - which would be a "sister" organization to ours.
Where we have for years debated the semantics of a "showcase", they are offering that up the beginning of April. We now call this offering a Cabaret Salon where it offers a monthly chance to sample our members sort of ala carte. They are highlighting 5 of their members and just as we do, they have a host or an emcee for the evening. Each performer gets a short 15 minutes to craft their set into an arc of material. It also looks as if they play a bit with themed evenings, with upcoming sets in May that showcase Chicago composers, Irving Berlin and Ella & Lena for their female members.
Good to know there is a common thread in what we are doing for both our members and audiences.
For our monthly Cabaret Salon, TCCAN is lucky to feature a slate of 4 grand divas this weekend! Our monthly gigs are always a grab bag of our fabulous talents. But the way this one played out - it is strictly a female affair that spans 2 generations. So I decided to give a shout to them with an angle of their strong icons & influences. I asked each of them to name a specific song that resonates with them. And the responses sort of chose sides in the telling.
Dorothy and Connie who have strong roots in Jazz and American standards both chose the same piece with Carole King and her defining (You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman. They both had their musical upbringing in those early 70's where women singer-songwriters were coming into their own with the likes of Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and Carole King to name a few. For Connie it was about an uninhibited woman asserting herself as exactly who she is.
Katia and Trish have spent many of their evenings doing gigs with cover bands, so they have plenty of exposure to pop ballads and anthems. Both of them chose Gloria Gaynor's disco blockbuster I Will Survive. Katia is drawn to not only the strength of the lyrics but its infectious groove. Trish speaks about the the aspect of finding yourself and breaking free of the "chains of regret."
So please come and hear the collective stories that these 4 TCCAN Divas bring to the room. This Saturday @ Town House in St Paul. The usual $10 suggested donation and reminding you that we are now starting our sets at 7:30 instead of the usual 8:00.
I'm assuming each of you has your own story of scouring for that one song that is a needle in a haystack. We heard a music track, it came up in a playlist, it is on some archived cast album from decades back... As cabaret artists, we are often trying to find material that is uniquely "us."
On line music is a great asset, with possibilities on MusicNotes and others sites to not only purchase individual charts, but have them transposed to a key that fits our range. Our connection in TCCAN allows us to also exchange pieces or share obscure tabs from old vintage books in our collections. Even our public library has a reserve shelf that can provide us an occasional treasure if we are willing to dig a bit through an archaic card catalogue. But I am here to praise a new find in Hollywood Sheet Music. Enough so, that I am adding it as a resource in our links here. Their by line is "if you can't find it here, you won't find it anywhere."
I am currently work shopping a new set of Cy Coleman material and choosing to really delve into some of his lost trunk songs. Through an adventure chase that began with his own publishing company, I was lucky enough to get a lead to them. Somewhere along the way, some of Cy's songs are still owned by his estate, others went over to the Hal Leonard company. And yet there is a third option of those straggling songs that were never deemed important enough to be published, but merely copyrighted. Somehow Hollywood Sheet Music has assembled many of those stray ducks in a massive strip mall warehouse in Burbank CA. So if anything you are seeking may have come from a musical score or a film soundtrack, chances are that you might have some luck here.
Their website is hardly high tech. And the search engine there is deceiving and not always at face value. I was told to send a personal inquiry to Stephanie, the librarian there. And that is where I struck gold. Within a day, she responded back and had both rare tunes I was looking for; one from the original theater score and the other chart in Coleman's own notation. They were a bit more expensive than other on line sites - but far less than having someone arrange them by hand. Another great resource to remember!
Hollywood Sheet Music
Hollywood Piano Warehouse
This feature come to us from Vicky - who spends much of her time working with young students and their vocal training. The article's main point (from American Theater) centers on new expectations for musical theater students in a conservatory setting.
Before I made the leap to the cabaret world, I was starting to feel a bit of dismay at the unreal assumptions put upon a working actor. A triple threat was no longer an ace. Directors now ALSO wanted you to play the tuba, juggle, do stand-up comedy and speak fluid Italian. Ridiculous! But what is sad, is that there always seemed to be that one person in the room who was able to deliver on all counts. I had a close friend stage managing the recent Sweeney Todd revival and he talked about how impossible it was to cast understudies for the show - it needed to be someone who could sing their own role and play a fiddle and also be able to step in for a totally different role playing the trombone - throughout the entire score. Add in the new Cirque element and we should all be doing trapeze work in addition to Fosse choreography. So I got out!
But the new element that many conservatory programs are offering up is a fourth track; creative writing. Everything from scene work, composition and full script collaboration. And this concept I like. If you aren't finding the right work out there in the real world - Create Your Own! I think this is where we, as cabaret artists tend to soar. We relish in the idea that we are going to tell our own unique stories with our own personal spin. From conversations with actors - many rely on hiding behind the skin of a role that someone else has created for them. Instead of being their authentic selves. And this is something we strive for in our world - trying to be singularly unique. Some of the programs noted are the Cincinnati Conservatory, Pace University, Baldwin University and the Eugene O'Neil Center. I think those students are getting far more bang for their buck.
Musical Theatre Students are becoming Quadruple-threats
For those of us of a certain age, we can hearken back to the now shuttered Nye's Polonaise Room. It was never really cabaret, but for decades it was a song lounge and listening room when there was no other game in town. Before the Shout House, the Times, Dakota and Crooners. One never knew what "regulars" would roll in, or what tunes were on deck for the night. But the one constant that brought all of us back time and again was Lou Snider at the piano in the corner of the room. With her small rail of stools, a few mics to pass around and stacks of charts hidden behind the counter. Even I was in the final "class" of the golden age of Nye's before the college crowd made it a trendy go-to spot & far-too crowded room.
Last Sunday, the #Strib did a lovely feature on Lou as one of those monumental souls we lost this year in the Arts. Of course Prince was the headliner, but it was rightly so that she would be named right beside him as an institution that touched so many people in her 45 years there. I was astounded to read what a tragic childhood she lived. A mother that died while she was young. And then a depressed father that shot her and her siblings in desperation. She survived but always walked with a cane from the injuries - I had often thought is was likely polio or a medical condition. Somehow she defied odds and brought her talents and joy for life to the masses. Lucky us!
Both are gone now, as are many losses in 2016. But I will often recall the many times together that we shared Since I Fell For You in the key of E flat. She always knew what song and what key for me.
I think many of our members have their own connections with Maud, certainly via Arne. I myself don't know her but have seen her work around town several times. Although she is not a TCCAN member, she got some incredible accolades in the Chicago Tribune.
