BWW Reviews: Celebrating Release of Her New CD, Jazzy Joanne Tatham's Birdland Debut Never Quite Soars

Cabaret in New York has never suffered from a dearth of impressive jazz-oriented chanteuses. These include such past and present delights as Mary Foster Conklin, Laurie Krauz, Sally Mayes, Janis Siegel, Kat Gang, and the late Claiborne Cary. It is therefore most unfortunate that Birdland, an otherwise-impeccable jazz nightspot, had to suffer the recent January 19 show of Joanne Tatham (celebrating the recent release of her CD Out of My Dreams). While Tatham drew a very good house indeed, the lady has very little business referring to what she does as "jazz." In fact, it's not even cabaret. What Tatham delivers is really more a sad club act that couldn't even take it's place among the bluest of blues.

Although her musicians are utterly impeccable, including guitarist Sean Harkness, percussion by Tim Horner, and musical director Tamir Hendelman leading a quintette on the keys, Tatham herself never manages to come up swinging in any sense of the word. She cuts a fine figure with her statuesque beauty and fetching facial qualities, but these are severely overshawdowed by her pedestrian vocals. It's not a poor instrument by any stretch, but her voice is completely ill-suited to the jazz idiom. She does manage to succeed with a couple of numbers, such as "Detour Ahead" and Dave Frishberg's masterful "Too Long In LA," but these are completely eclipsed by extremely poor choices in vocal arrangement and scat placements.

On the positive side, Joanne Tatham does appear to be a crowd pleaser and appears to possess the ability and drive to improve her jazz game. Until then, however, best to sit home and listen to a CD by Ella Fitzgerald or Anita O'Day.

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