Review: Natalie Douglas Brings Glitter and Magic to Birdland in STEVIE SONGS

For her soulful, imaginative rendering of jazz, pop, and R&B music, Los Angeles native and septuple MAC Award winner Natalie Douglas has earned raves for two decades from American and British critics alike. Superlatives like "transcendent," "heart-stopping," and "[the] greatest" pepper reviews both of her live performances and work in the studio. Douglas' new show, STEVIE SONGS, which marked her 50th performance at Birdland, made clear why Clive Davis of The New York Times wrote, "By the end [of a show], you want her to carry on into the small hours."

Pairing two artists with whom she admits to being "fairly obsessed," Douglas takes us back to the 1970s. That the 1970s funk of Stevie Wonder makes her "all kinds of happy" isn't surprising for an artist who devoted an album to the music of Nina Simone, but Douglas was equally moved by the "pop country folk LA hippie drug hybrid" sound of Stevie Nicks.

Douglas' rich, full, and smooth voice never misses a note. She belts with the best of them, but Douglas also knows how to rein it in, which is a mark of a truly great singer with judgment as well as sheer vocal power. The performer's phrasing is impeccable and she gets the husky, low Stevie Nicks murmur just right. The arrangements of musical director Brian Nash--- who wasn't yet born when these songs were written--- are masterful throughout as he plays both piano and keyboard (sometimes at the same time) with technique matching his exuberance. The two mash-ups, "Lately/Dreams" and "If It's Magic/Landslide" worked well, both thematically and musically.

One expects a strong band at Birdland, but Douglas goes big in STEVIE SONGS with two electric guitars (Lily Maase and Shanna Sharp, who also sings backup), drums (Joe Choroszewski), and a bass (Saadi Zain). Maase switches out guitars four times and the band rocks hard on "Tell Me Something Good." The song Wonder originally wrote for Chaka Kahn left her cold, so they just "fooled around," as Douglas put it. The funk classic was the result.

Opening with two Stevie Nicks' hits, "After The Glitter Fades" and "Silver Springs," and Wonder's beloved ballad "All In Love Is Fair," Douglas did a nice job of explaining the show's superficially incongruous concept. Both Nicks and Wonder wrote profound and poetic lyrics, but they also knew how to write hits. And for an LA girl like Douglas, both artists were defining influences. As for the selection of just over a dozen songs from two oeuvres this massive, Douglas said in her inimitably sweet but outspoken manner, "These may not be your favorite songs. So do your own show!"

The backstories about Nicks were judiciously chosen and amusingly told. Those of us who know the story of Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, and Mick Fleetwood---a cocaine-fueled love triangle which produced some of the decade's greatest music---smiled nostalgically. Those who didn't got a quick and dirty rundown of the iconic band's sexual and drug history.

The performer got big laughs when she conceded that, unlike Nicks, she never slept with her whole band. "It's not too late," she reflected as an afterthought. In one of the evening's many charming asides, she recounts the story of the Eagles' visit to an assembly at her "fancy LA girls' school" in the 2nd grade (full disclosure: I attended the same school from 7th to 12th grade a decade or so later and recalled with gratitude similar "drop-ins" by great artists). "They must have had a really bad manager," she joked.

When a mic is brought onstage for "Leather and Lace" but left empty for a few moments, Nash quipped, "It's like waiting for Elijah!" I expected a Clint Eastwood empty chair joke, which would have been in keeping with the light but sincere political commentary that ran through much of the show. Like one of the evening's presiding presences, Stevie Wonder, Douglas doesn't shy away from politics, but she has a light touch. And in this crowd, of course, her jokes are well-received.

Douglas discussed Wonder's political and environmental activism (including the star's role in bringing about Martin Luther King Day). "You Haven't Done Nothing," a song Wonder wrote about Richard Nixon, was a perfect campaign song for Trump. "Pastime Paradise," about a past that never existed, was powerful in the context of the current election.

The evening included one surprise, "The Secret Life of Plants," which Wonder wrote for a documentary of the same name. The lyrics were quite moving, though placed after what was arguably the biggest hit of the night ("Tell Me Something Good") a bit of a letdown.

Douglas sang a pitch-perfect "Gold Dust Woman," which she called a "feminist anthem." Noting wryly that not a lot of women are writing such songs these days (though Katy Perry tries), Douglas wrapped up with "Rhiannon" and a "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" dedicated to two women together over thirty years but just recently married.

One is sorry when Douglas and her extraordinary band leave the stage, disappointed that the glitter of STEVIE SONGS must fade. But in this personal, unusual show during this depressing, belief-defying election, Douglas keeps "the dream coming."

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