Review: Carole J. Bufford Is Expertly SETTING NEW STANDARDS at Chelsea Table + Stage

It is difficult to think of Carole J. Bufford without thinking of the past. The singing actress who always looks like she has just stepped out of a vintage fashion magazine said, just last night, that she is most usually associated with dead people when it comes to the songs she sings. When one hears the name Carole J. Bufford, it wouldn't be a far stretch of the imagination to have visions of Sixties musical theater heroines, Seventies pop legends, and torch singers from the Great Depression dancing in one's head. That is the Carole J. Bufford mystique.

But it wasn't the Carole J. Bufford that appeared at Chelsea Table + Stage last night.

For her new show, SETTING NEW STANDARDS, Carole J. Bufford went out on a limb and set herself a challenge to sing only songs written and released after January 1st, 2000 - a far cry from Delta Dawn, Sweet Charity, and Liza with a Z. And even though die-hards of The Bufford might think that a show of contemporary compositions might not be as exciting as her Halloween show or her John Prine tribute show, they would be wrong because it doesn't matter what Carole J. Bufford is singing - she will make it interesting, and she will do that in ways that hypnotize, fascinate, and entertain. And teach, too. Carole J. Bufford doesn't just come to sing, no, no, no: Carole J. Bufford brought all the facts and history, all the tidbits and trivia, and not one word of it did she read off of a tablet, a notebook, or a script. Carole J. Bufford read all of the stories about Taylor Swift, Jennifer Nettles, Carrie Underwood, and Bruno Mars off of the inside of her brain. And it was amazing. This writer has a sneaking suspicion that Carole J. Bufford is a research nerd, an artist who insists on knowing everything about that which she will sing so that her performance can be fully informed, a human being who craves the inside track on the composers and histories, for nothing more than her own satisfaction - and the audience gets the payoff because listening to Bufford chat about this-N-that is as much fun as listening to (and watching) her sing. And, oh, to be in a room watching her sing.

The Carole J. Bufford musical performances in Setting New Standards are beyond. That need surprise nobody. Carole J. Bufford is the best in the business, a bold original, defiantly individual, and celebratory unique. And when all of those qualities get spread over songs like "Fade Into You" and "If I Didn't Know Better" a person might find themselves at home, looking at old episodes of NASHVILLE to see what they missed, intrigued by the brilliance of Bufford's take on the two TV show duets, reimagined as solos for her, and clocking in as two of the evening's highlights. With masterful acting skills and showwomanship that spins the mind, Bufford takes on the silly ("Figaro" by Norah Jones), the fierce (Duffy's "Smoke Without Fire"), and the dramatic ("Delicate" by Damien Rice, this writer's choice for the best of the night), and always with the seeming greatest of ease. And there is always an anecdote - maybe it's one from her own life and experience, maybe it's one that details the backstory of the composition, maybe it's a quick reaction to a particularly responsive table in the club, in real-time - whatever it is, in Carole Bufford's hands, it's gold, it's funny, and it's groovy. That's why, whatever the show, whatever the decade, whatever the genre, Carole J. Bufford has achieved the degree of devotion she has from audiences. She is a true-blue professional who knows how to do her job as a storyteller, but also her job as a hostess. The room at Chelsea Table + Stage is a long one with seating on three sides and, at no time, did Carole leave anyone out. As seamlessly as a hostess throwing a swanky party, Bufford floated from one side of the stage to the other, seeing to the visual needs of all her guests, assuring that every person in the room could see the stories she was telling, on her face, in her body language, as well as hear them in her voice. This was Ms. Bufford's first night in this particular club but it seemed, at times, as though she had lived there her entire professional life.

And speaking of Carole J. Bufford's professional life - Carole was aided mightily last night by musical director Ian Herman (on piano) and bassist Tom Hubbard, who made their little trio of musicians sound like a coffee house combo. Such superb musical support is what cabaret and concert artists should dream of, especially when it comes with the kind of solos so magnificently provided by Misters Herman and Hubbard (hearing the gentlemen live is a thrill and a treat). Setting New Standards is a title that plays on words by referencing modern-day compositions that might have been standards, were they written in another era, but the fact of the matter is that Carole, Ian, and Tom DO set the standard of quality in cabaret and concert. Singularly, they are, each of them, simply the best; together, they are unbeatable, even in a show without a single song from The Great American Songbook, and, speaking personally, if you can hold this writer's attention for eighty-five minutes without one Cole Porter tune or one Rodgers & Hart creation, you've accomplished something. So, Carole, Ian, and Tom: Mission accomplished, and well done. Setting New Standards is a wonderful cabaret offering filled with music that people should know and performances that people should see, which is why the people are lucky there is another performance tonight at 7 pm at Chelsea Table + Stage. Anyone who wants to get out for the evening and hasn't made plans yet, this is the choice you want to make.

Visit the Chelsea Table + Stage website HERE and the Carole J. Bufford website HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher; Visit the Stephen Mosher website HERE.

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