[Dixielandjazz] An Evening With Lensa Horne

[Steve Barbone]

My wife was watching Survivor on TV so I went into my office to see what was
on WYBE, a PBS "artsy" station in South NJ which we get on cable. Recently I
had seen Titan Hot 7 from a Bix Festival on that channel, then another time
Bob Draga, and am often surprised at their jazz programming.

Tonight was "An Evening with Lena Horne", from Denoyer's Supper Club  in
NYC, circa 1994 when she would have been 77 years old. It was a stunning
performance by a great singer, usually not called a jazz singer, even though
she has sung with a lot of great jazz musicians/bands, etc.

She sang with the then current edition of the Count Basie Band and the one
hour performance was electrifying. As an old guy, I remember her from about
1947 onward and loved the way she sang from first hearing.

And so tonight on TV, though she was a little more frail, she sent shivers
up my spine. Nostalgia? Nah, she was just radiating an aura that her
audience caught, that the band caught, and she had everyone in the palm of
her hand. What a great lesson I got in how to connect.

I asked Martha to come in during the second song and she was also hooked.
Lena replaced Survivor on the big screen TV and we watched spellbound as she
wove her magic and the band supplied exactly the right mix behind her. Wow!

If you ever see a TV listing for "AN EVENING WITH LENA HORNE" from NYC and
Denoyer's Supper Club, backed by the Basie Band, don't miss it. I believe
Michael Cuscuna produced it.

Jazz singer or not, Lena Horne belongs to that rare elite group of
performers who define the word "professional".

She's 90 this year, bless her.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone