[Dixielandjazz] THE OKOM of BARBARA CARROLL

[Steve barbone]

Don't miss Barbara Carroll if you are visiting NYC on a Sunday. Especially
if with your main squeeze. She is a real treat on piano. Her treatment of
the music of Harold Arlen is always superb.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

PS. Jay Leonhart is mostly bowing his bass which is another treat.


February 22, 2005 NY TIMES CABARET REVIEW | BARBARA CARROLL

An Impressionist's Harold Arlen, Graceful and Blue By STEPHEN HOLDEN

If the pianist and sometime singer Barbara Carroll isn't on intimate musical
terms with any song you could name from the catalog of American pop and jazz
standards, chances are that the song isn't worth remembering. In her return
engagement at the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel, where she and the bassist
Jay Leonhart are performing brunch and evening shows on Sundays, she is
concentrating on the music of this year's centennial kid, Harold Arlen, with
brief side trips to the legacy of Cy Coleman and to songs with lyrics by
Dorothy Parker. 

Arlen's sprawling dyed-in-the-blues songs lend themselves to Ms. Carroll's
graceful, melodic piano style. She incorporates elements of blues and swing
into her music, but her hallmark is a precise, clear-toned impressionism
that at its most effulgent suggests autumn foliage cascading into a
well-kept garden. Songs are often prefaced with semiclassical introductions
reminiscent of Ravel or Rachmaninoff. Once a tune is unfurled, it usually
progresses from a full-bodied two-handed statement into a politely frisky
swing rendition with Erroll Garner-like flourishes.

You'll rarely find Ms. Carroll crunching the keyboard or making startling
tempo changes. For connective musical tissue, she favors thickly harmonized
descents in the whole-tone scale.

On Sunday afternoon her supremely relaxed renditions of "Last Night When We
Were Young" and "Don't Like Goodbyes" were particularly satisfying. The
intensely chromatic "Last Night When We Were Young" almost demands romantic
melodrama, but Ms. Carroll stood back and made it a wistful reflection on
the past regarded from a secure niche of peace and quiet. Mr. Leonhart's
mostly bowed bass seamlessly filled out the song's musical profile.

The mood of the concert and the quality of Ms. Carroll's rapport with Mr.
Leonhart were both epitomized by the final number, Stephen Sondheim's "Old
Friends." If great songs could be called friends, Ms. Carroll is one of the
most popular women in town.

Barbara Carroll performs on Sundays at the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel,
59 West 44th Street, Manhattan; (212) 419-9331.