[Dixielandjazz] Daryl Sherman

[Stephen G Barbone]

Daryl Sherman is a wonderful singer. What may be lesser known is that  
she is also a wonderful OKOM jazz pianist. I had the good fortune to  
gig with her a few years ago in a band led by Ed Polcer that included  
her, Tom Artin (Tb), Joe Ascione (dms) and Greg Cohen (dbl bs). She  
did a great job and is a really nice person to hang out with.
Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband

April 1, 2009 - NY TIMES - By Stephen Holden

Chasing the Monday Blues With a Signature Jazz Sound

That shopworn description “songbird” applies to the jazz singer and  
pianist Daryl Sherman not only because she has a sweet, little-girl  
lilt embodied in her voice, but also because her musical spirit  
belongs to an era when jazz singing was an expression of pure  
enjoyment; Freudian subtexts had yet to tunnel into the core of  
popular music.
But Ms. Sherman, who is appearing on Monday evenings indefinitely at  
the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel, isn’t all sweetness and light.  
Like Blossom Dearie (who died on Feb. 7), to whom she bears a striking  
vocal resemblance, she can be appreciated for the good-natured spin  
she imparts to songs. Or you can look deeper and discover the sadness  
below the chin-up optimism.

For all their vocal similarities, the two phrase songs very  
differently. Ms. Sherman pointedly syncopates melodies and often  
breaks them up into abrupt little bursts of energy. Her jazz pianism  
is sparer and more percussive.

The opening number in Monday’s show, the 1926 standard “Breezin’ Along  
With the Breeze,” however, was a quintessentially carefree Daryl  
Sherman performance, lent an extra buoyancy by James Chirillo’s light,  
swinging guitar and Dean Johnson’s bass.

Darker undercurrents soon made their way into her set. Images of post- 
Katrina New Orleans, a city she knows well, kept recurring in her  
patter. And in her performances of three songs — “Charade,” “Little  
Girl Blue” and the Depression-era Gershwin number “Things Are Looking  
Up” — anxiety threatened to unseat the cheer.

“Little Girl Blue” was particularly poignant, because Ms. Sherman’s  
vocal timbre implies a pre-adolescent vulnerability. Your impulse was  
to protect this wounded innocent from the cold, cruel world.

Sung slowly and wistfully, “Things Are Looking Up” was turned inside  
out. The song’s title phrase sounded like the hollow pronouncement of  
good times ahead by a chief executive who secretly knows that his  
company is about to fold. And at moments Ms. Sherman seemed as if she  
were fighting back tears. The number was a perfect example of how  
today’s economically uncertain mood can seep into the sensibilities of  
performers and audiences alike.

Daryl Sherman performs Mondays at the Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel,  
59 West 44th Street, Manhattan; (212) 419-9331, algonquinhotel.com.