[Dixielandjazz] NY TIMES REVIEW OF - gasp, choke, - OKOM.

[Steve barbone]

Below is today's NY Times review of Vince Giordanp's band and pianist/singer
Daryl Sherman's performance at the Regency. Nice to see the Time's critics
review OKOM, nice to see the OKOM getting a $71 cover plus a $40 minimum
entrance fee.

Way to go, Vince and Daryl. Love you.

Cheers,
Steve

Cabaret Review
Upbeat, Effervescent Sounds From Daryl Sherman and Vince Giordano

NY TIMES - By STEPHEN HOLDEN - March 24, 2006

If two smile buttons were to meet and fall in love, their ideal wedding
music might be the ebullient pre-swing jazz churned out by the singer and
pianist Daryl Sherman with Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks (a band
frequently heard on Woody Allen soundtracks). "The Park Avenue Whirl," their
collaboration at Feinstein's at the Regency, resurrects a pop-jazz style
synonymous with simplicity and joy. Performed in an authentic period style,
the propulsive sounds of 1920's and 30's jazz are among the happiest
effusions of American music.

It would take a book to answer the question "why?" As the Great Depression
was deepening, why was the music so joyful? Was it merely a means of
collective escape? Or did it express an underlying awareness that even in
hard times the foundation of modern American pop was being laid?

Those are large questions, but the fact remains that this exuberant early
jazz is idyllic in a way that seems poignant in light of today's shameless
pop bellyaching and self-promotion. This is a style synonymous with group
cooperation, self-restraint and tightly reined instrumental virtuosity.

Ms. Sherman and Mr. Giordano's band show that the songs of Cole Porter,
Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington and lesser-known composers sound fine stripped
of psychological subtext and harmonic depth and turned into peppy foxtrots,
with their lyrics' good humor heavily emphasized.

Ms. Sherman, who suggests a reincarnation of Mildred Bailey, never met a
song she couldn't infuse with a swinging optimism. Neither a probing
interpreter nor a sophisticated vocal technician, she is a believer in the
simple pleasures. And good clean fun is what "The Park Avenue Whirl"
provides in abundance.

"The Park Avenue Whirl" continues through tomorrow night at Feinstein's at
the Regency, 540 Park Avenue, at 61st Street; (212) 339-4095.