[Dixielandjazz] Keely Smith, still ticking.

[Stephen G Barbone]

Keely Smith, still performing, still hip at age 80.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

www.barbonestreet.com
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband


June 5, 2008 - NY TIMES - by STEPHEN HOLDEN
Still Swinging, Still Hungry, Keely Smith Keeps the Passion
“I’d kill right now for a meatball sandwich,” Keely Smith declared  
from the stage of Birdland on Tuesday evening. Ms. Smith, who has  
recently acquired the nickname Queen of Swing, has expressed the same  
craving for meatballs on New York nightclub stages before. Performing  
clearly stimulates her appetites.

I have an imaginary picture of her chomping down on a sandwich at 4  
a.m. in a Las Vegas diner after a marathon performance with Louis  
Prima in the early-1960s heyday of Sin City. On Tuesday she recalled  
that Mr. Prima struck her as the handsomest man she had ever seen  
until they divorced, and then she realized he was ugly.

No meatball sandwich materialized, but a thoughtful ringside patron  
offered her a zucchini tied with a ribbon.

Ms. Smith also announced that she is now 80. “I’m an old woman,” she  
said, then pointed to her waist and added, “But from here down I’m not.”

When one fan declared, “I love you,” she snapped back: “You say you  
love me. How old are you?” She can’t help herself; she is attracted to  
much younger men, she admitted. Her swinging rendition of “Can’t Take  
My Eyes Off You” included one critical word change. “Thank God love  
has arrived” became “Thank God lust has arrived.”

Of course Ms. Smith is kidding. But she’s not. Over the years raunchy  
Wife of Bath comedy has threatened to overtake music as the focus of  
her act. This is not to say that Ms. Smith has lost her chops. With  
her excellent quintet — Dennis Michaels on piano, Mike Merritt on  
bass, Mike Morreale on trumpet, Jerry Vivino on saxophone and Steve  
Bargonetti on guitar — she lighted a fire under “Jump, Jive an’ Wail”  
and “Let the Good Times Roll.”

But there have always been two sides to Ms. Smith — the tomboyish  
cutup and deadpan comic foil for Mr. Prima’s pranks, and the balladeer  
whose signature song, “I Wish You Love,” was perked up on Tuesday with  
a brisk Latin beat. But ballads predominated. The set’s five slower  
songs included “You Go to My Head” and “I Have Dreamed.”

Who knows what they mean to her today. In reasonably good voice, she  
reeled them off without devoting much attention to interpretations.  
Her familiar vocal sound — warm and colored with a sense of regret —  
sufficed.

Keely Smith performs through Sunday at Birdland, 315 West 44th Street,  
Clinton; (212) 581-3080, birdlandjazz.com




Steve Barbone

www.barbonestreet.com
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband