[Dixielandjazz] Chestnuts, Sleigh Bells and Boogie-Woogie

[Steve Barbone]

If visiting New York City over the Winter Solstice (I can't spell all those
other Holiday Names), don't miss this show. Michael Feinstein is a wonderful
pianist with a broad American Songbook repertoire and "Pig Foot Pete" is a a
neat tune as well as a sight to behold.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone


Chestnuts, Sleigh Bells and Boogie-Woogie

Home for the Holidays: Michael Feinstein opens his year-end show tonight.

NY Time - By STEPHEN HOLDEN - December 5, 2006

Who else but that intrepid pop scholar Michael Feinstein would unearth an
obscure novelty like ³Pig Foot Pete,² a rip-roaring boogie-woogie from an
early Abbott and Costello movie, ³Keep ¹Em Flying² in which the comedy team
played military stunt pilots?

The song by Gene De Paul and Don Raye was the least known of nine Academy
Award nominees for best song in 1942 that lost to ³White Christmas.² The two
songs make a bracing contrast in ³Home for the Holidays,² the latest edition
of Mr. Feinstein¹s annual year-end show, which opens tonight at Feinstein¹s
at the Regency. 

If you¹ve never heard Mr. Feinstein make one of his rare forays into
boogie-woogie, it¹s something to see. This embodiment of urban piano bar
polish and disciple of Gershwin and Berlin has it in him to strip off the
parquet, and jump into the dirt to shout and hammer the keyboard like Jerry
Lee Lewis; it¹s liberating both for him and for us.

³Home for the Holidays,² the strongest incarnation so far of his annual
bash, is a variety special in need of a television producer. A far-reaching
mixture of esoterica and standards that features a six-member band and three
backup vocalists, it is a perfect showcase for Mr. Feinstein to balance his
two sides: a gregarious stand-up entertainer dispensing shtick and an
intimate crooner wistfully dreaming out loud.

Other novelty items include an elaborate medley of ³Winter Wonderland,²
³Sleigh Ride² and ³Jingle Bells,² in which Parson Brown becomes a rabbi;
³That¹s What I Want for Christmas,² an obscure oldie-but-goodie associated
with Nancy Wilson; and ³Christmas Is an Island,² a jolly calypso greeting
card by Lance Ong and Marshall Barer, stuffed with tropical imagery.

All this is but tinsel on a serious tree. For the heart and soul of ³Home
for Holidays² consists of ballads that Mr. Feinstein performs by himself at
the piano. He invests a medley of ³Some Other Time² and ³The Party¹s Over,²
offered in tribute to Betty Comden, with a startling edge of anger at the
loss of this great lyricist, who died last month. Some of the same anguish
inflected a medley of Gershwin songs requested by the audience at Thursday¹s
preview performance.

But the star crowning the tree was Mr. Feinstein¹s extraordinarily tender
and wistful rendition of ³Nobody¹s Heart (Belongs to Me),² sung with Bucky
Pizzarelli on guitar. For all its ebullience ³Home for the Holidays²
distills the loneliness that can suddenly ambush the most dedicated consumer
of eggnog during a sudden lull in the festivities.

³Home for the Holidays² opens tonight at Feinstein¹s at the Regency, 540
Park Avenue, at 61st Street, (212) 339-4095; through Dec. 30.