A treasure trove of new songs by the proto-talented American expatriate lyricist Fran Landesman, have been smuggled into the U.S. by the singer Shepley Metcalf. The songs, 15 gems from the still prolific but mercurial tunesmith who withdrew to London in the mid-60's, are being performed for the first time ever on these shores.
Metcalf premieres "Something Irresistible: Shepley Metcalf Sings
Fran Landesman" on Sunday October 24 at 7pm at the Metropolitan Room, 34 West 22nd Street. Backed by her music director
Ron Roy on piano, Chris Rathbun on bass and Bart Weisman on drums, the Boston-based Metcalf recently introduced these songs in performances at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston and Danvenport's in Chicago. The New York premiere of "Something Irresistible" celebrates the U.S. release in March of "Something Irresistible: Songs of
Fran Landesman + Simon Wallace" Jazzwise, the UK's noted jazz magazine, gave the album four stars in July, calling it a "fine, exquisitely programmed 15-song collection."
Written with the jazz composer Simon Wallace, Landesman's songwriting collaborator in London since 1994, the new collection is hailed by The Boston Herald as "a trove of should-be standards." Among the standouts are "In a New York Minute," "It's Cool to be Cool," "When Your Computer Crashes," and the monumentally poignant "Save the Photographs."
After contacting Wallace in London and expressing her vivid interest in any new Landesman tunes, Metcalf met Wallace for the first time at the Café Carlyle in March ‘09. (He was in town with his other notable collaborator, the singer
Barb Jungr.) At this meeting, she was handed the mother lode of songs (which Wallace was preparing to publish as the first Landesman/Wallace songbook).
A Greenwich Village fixture in her early career, Landesman is best known for her widely admired standards "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most," and "The Ballad of the Sad Young Men." Her songs have been covered in classic recordings by
Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Ricki Lee Jones, Gil Evans and
Bette Midler. Wallace is well known in Great Britain for his extensive work as a jazz pianist, arranger and composer in nightclubs, for the theatre and television.
Celebrating the recent release of "Something Irresistible: Songs of
Fran Landesman + Simon Wallace," "Something Irresistible: Shepley Metcalf Sings
Fran Landesman" premieres on Sunday October 24 at 7pm. The cover charge is $20, with a two-drink minimum. For information, or to order online, visit www.metropolitanroom.com. For reservations call 212/206-0440. The Nightlife and Bistro Award-winning Metropolitan Room, 34 West 22nd Street, was recently called "the best of New York's smaller clubs" by The New York Times.
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