Review: FAITH AMOUR Spreading Joy with Jazz Classics at MetropolitanZoom

FAITH AMOUR spreads the joy at MetropolitanZoom in a "live from home" virtual concert

"Feeling Good! ~ Sensational Jazz Classics" made me smile big-time!

It is a very rare thing in my experience when a jazz singer has such a strong interaction with her audience - especially when that audience is virtual. But Faith Amour's smile was so contagious that one couldn't help smiling at the computer screen.

I only remember one singer whose face was so suffused with joy at the act of singing, and whose face lit up as she finished presenting each song for the audience to share, and that was the great American opera diva Jessye Norman. A critic once wrote of Ms. Norman that she brought a "sumptuous, shimmering voice to a broad range of roles."

On Saturday evening, Ms. Amour brought a similarly sumptuous, shimmering voice to a broad range of music and musical styles. Her voice was smooth as molasses running downhill in July, her face lit with the joy of making music virtually every second of her singing. Her face brightened another notch as each song ended, as if to say "There! I'm so happy to sing this for you!" And when she told a story between songs, her connection with her virtual audience was so present I almost forgot I was watching on a computer screen and not in a live cabaret, surrounded by people who knew and loved her music. In addition, Ms. Amour's command of the material was prodigious, and her flair and comfort-whether singing or telling stores-were equally solid.

If a performer is not careful - and talented - working with pre-recorded instrumental tracks can come off kind of like a one-person karaoke show. By the end of the second song, this had ceased to make any difference for me. Ms. Amour dealt with starting and stopping the pre-recorded music so easily that it disappeared into invisibility.

The concept behind this evening was most interesting. It took the form of a musical biography, with Ms. Amour relating events of her life and tying them to the songs she was singing. The stories were quite varied, with some having to do with where in her life they fell, others having to do with where in the world she was at the time, and others related to people in her life with whom she associated the song. All the songs and stories were different, but Ms. Amour tied them up with a big bow that made for a coherent wholeness to the evening.

As a side note, Ms. Amour sang every song on her set list, but not in the order they were listed. Two additional songs were added to the list, making for a very satisfying 16-song evening.

Some specifics:

Opening number-"Route 66" - what better way to take us on a journey through Ms. Amour's life than a travel song?

"How High the Moon" - Really skillful and different scatting; not just the standard syllables you hear from every jazz singer. Sometimes instead of the usual scat syllables, she repeated a truncated version of lines she had just sung. It was very effective.

"La Vie en Rose" - Such elegant French made it sound like I was listening to Edith Piaf in a club in Paris' Montmartre district.

"Mas que Nada" - Ms. Amour's body was totally in sync with the song. Every movement and gesture was a good fit to the words and the rhythm of the instance. I find a lot of singers don't know what to do with their hands and/or body when they sing, so they tend to stand still as a rock, clutching the microphone stand. None of that for Ms. Amour. She was as much a joy to watch as to hear.

I do take (slight) issue with two things: First, I thought the instrumentation for "Unforgettable" was just a bit harsh and percussive to fit the words, the mood, and the message of the song but that's just a personal preference, and not to be carved in stone. Second, I would like to see an evening with Ms. Amour where her beautiful and expressive eyes are open more often than not.

I was totally unfamiliar with this artist's work before this evening. Now I will be on the lookout for more performances by Faith Amour.

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