[Dixielandjazz] Rob Fisher Celebrates the Gershwins

[Stephen G Barbone]

Can't go wrong adding Gershwin Songs to Dixieland Concerts. How many  
of us play " Blah, blah, blah, blah, Moon"? Below is Sassy doing it.  
See the last paragraphs in the article for an explanation of the song.  
For lyrics see:  http://www.solopassion.com/node/2079

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4loQY9P_jOs

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband

The Cheeriness of Those Gershwin Boys

NY TIMES - by Stephen Holden - January 29, 2011


An unquenchable joie de vivre buoyed by an antic humor that wells up  
like spring water: the impulse to feel good is a driving force in the  
songs of George and Ira Gershwin, perhaps more so than in the work of  
any other major 20th-century songwriting team. No wonder everyone  
loves the Gershwins.

An intuitive understanding of the optimistic spirit fueling much of  
the American songbook is one of many qualities that set the conductor  
and musical scholar Rob Fisher above and apart from almost every other  
musician working the same territory. And on Wednesday evening, his  
Lincoln Center American Songbook concert, “Fascinatin’ Rhythm: Rob  
Fisher Celebrates the Gershwins, With Victoria Clark and Norm Lewis,”  
at the Allen Room, captured the brothers’ bonhomie.

The 90-minute program, a sequel to Mr. Fisher’s equally insightful  
Cole Porter tribute that opened the American Songbook series in 2009,  
featured two of the same hands: the singer Ms. Clark and the woodwind  
player Steve Kenyon. Instead of David Hyde Pierce, Ms. Clark’s vocal  
playmate in the Porter anthology, her leading man was Mr. Lewis, who  
in the recent Broadway show “Sondheim on Sondheim” delivered the most  
truthful version of “Being Alive” that I can recall.

Rounding out the ensemble were Greg Utzig on guitar, Dick Sarpola on  
bass, Erik Charlston on percussion (mostly vibes) and Mr. Fisher on  
piano.

As he has shown time and again, especially in his “Encores”  
performances at City Center, Mr. Fisher is a pragmatic purist with a  
light touch who disdains the bloat and pomposity that often accrue to  
contemporary performances of vintage theater songs. Yet he discreetly  
lets a contemporary sensibility filter into everything so that even  
period jokes and wordplay sound fresh.

Ms. Clark is an interpretive wonder who can go from operatic to tart  
in the same phrase if necessary. Instead of bearing down on lyrics to  
elucidate their meaning or to showcase a rhyme, she creates a complex  
character from whom words slide out as naturally as though they just  
popped into her mind. Refreshing the impossible-to-refresh “Man I  
Love,” sung with minimal accompaniment, she projected an innocent  
dreaminess that gave way to determination before returning to  
ingenuousness.

Mr. Lewis, who can easily sound heroic, held back, the better to  
embody the Gershwin leading man as a confident, cheerful partner in a  
romantic adventure devoid of macho posturing. Especially in the duets  
about incompatibility, “I Don’t Think I’ll Fall in Love Today” and  
“Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off,” a frisky, madcap playfulness added  
zest.

Sheldon Harnick, that affable sage of lyric writing, arrived onstage  
to sing “Blah, Blah, Blah,” the Gershwin brothers’ definitive send-up  
of love song clichés from the 1931 show “Delicious.”

Blah, blah, blah, blah, moon

Blah, blah, blah above;

Blah, blah, blah, blah croon,

Blah, blah, blah, blah love.

To which I’ll add my own cliché about the concert: It was blah, blah,  
blah, “ ’S Wonderful.”