Review: Ella Mae Dixon Steps Smoothly Center Stage With I'M OLD FASHIONED at Birdland

Picture it: Birdland Theater, March 21st, 2023. It's the New York City nightclub debut of a singing actress who admitted, during her show, that mere months ago, she was graduating high school. She is a relative newcomer to NYC whose on-stage experience in Manhattan has been mostly restricted to appearances at Jim Caruso's Cast Party (on the Birdland mainstage) and The Lineup With Susie Mosher (in the Birdland Theater). And, still, at a relatively young age with a relatively small amount of time as a New Yorker, Ella Mae Dixon played one amazing debut solo show. It isn't fair to say that, because of her youth, Ella Mae Dixon shouldn't have such skill, such talent, such stage presence, and such a good debut... but let's say it anyway. There have been any number of people more seasoned in life and in show business who haven't scored such a grand opening night, and if this is the way Dixon is going to start her club career in the city, then people need to get in line and get a ticket and see just how good she is.

Explaining to the audience that she has always been into vintage (clothing, music, movies, arts, and attitudes) Ms. Dixon presented the very image of a 1950's crooning girl singer. With a tailored and tidy coif, a vintage cocktail frock, simple yet effective heels, and your grandmother's lip and nail colors, Ella Mae Dixon is reminiscent of Donna Reed, Grace Kelly, Doris Day, and all the other movie stars in a full skirt with a perfect bevel. From tip to tail, everything about Ella Mae Dixon's appearance tells you that you have stepped back in time and that you are in for something soothing and elegant, playful and pretty. Then Ella Mae Dixon starts to sing, and slowly, one phrase at a time, one verse after another, one song following the last, you realize that this is more than just a young woman into vintage: this is a woman born for vintage. In the great tradition of Kay Starr, June Christy and Patsy Cline, Ella Mae Dixon has come to revive and keep alive the music of the past, but, more than that, she has come to breathe new life into that music and give it a relevance for today.

That is where Sean Harkness comes in.

Ella Mae Dixon's debut show was billed with the title I'M OLD FASHIONED, and even though the look is old-fashioned and the songs are old-fashioned, Musical Director Sean Harkness has provided Ms. Dixon with new arrangements to the songs, designed to excite and invigorate. He and his colleagues (Rob Mitzner on drums and Dmitry Ishenko on bass) didn't just back up Ella Mae Dixon, they created a tsunami of sound upon which the lady could set her voice so that it could soar high in the air to greatest advantage. This was no mere backing up of a vocalist, this was three big brothers protecting their prodigy with the greatest of pride. Using his electric guitar and inventive arrangements, Harkness kept the sound modern so that the audience could find something new in Ella Mae's interpretations of classics like "Goody Goody" and "I'm Old Fashioned," all the while keeping contained equally fresh treatments for compositions less likely to lend themselves to updating, like "You'll Never Know" and evening highlight, a lush and luscious "Teach Me Tonight." And with Sean's hip, hot arrangements, Rob and Dmitry's virtuosity, and Ella Mae's honey and brandy vocals, each of fourteen classic cuts from the decade of the Nineteen Fifties became musical selections of such impressive quality as to be, at times, almost shocking because no recent high school graduate should be this good. That's not ageism, it's admiration.

It isn't just the quality of Ella Mae's vocals that make her rise to the top as a budding artist of the cabaret and concert persuasion imminent - it's the comfortable and relaxed manner with which she relates to the audience. General cabaret chit-chat was on the menu on Tuesday night, and Ms. Dixon sat back into the format with ease and total absence of nerves, fully informed on the trivia and history of the compositions, including dates and names of creators. There was no script poised on a music stand, no cheat sheet, and no hesitation - Ella Mae Dixon knows that of which she speaks and sings, and the conversation isn't limited to factoids, it extends into the reasoning behind her affection for songs like "On the Street Where You Live" (a friend's NYC apartment) and "Tennessee Waltz" (her Grandmother's personal favorite). What we have here is a natural, one who has done her homework, invested in her training, meditated on her artistic voice, and stepped into her light. And even though Ella Mae Dixon is a natural, one who just had a killer debut show, that doesn't mean that there isn't room for growth.

As Ms. Dixon moves forward into the industry and art form, as she finds her footing and stakes her claim, there are a couple of technical notes this writer would like, respectfully, to offer - just some observations to help, along the way. For instance, Ms. Dixon tends to favor house left. A good deal of her show was played facing in the same direction, effectively cutting off one-third of her audience, made up of people sitting to the house right side of the stage. One might offer that Dixon could make a mental note that every audience member would like to (and deserves to) see her face at various intervals throughout the evening. And on the topic of the audience members: Ella Mae Dixon is very good at relating to the crowd. She is personable, she is as funny as a rubber crutch, and she is friendly; her conversation is relaxed and unstudied. There were occasions when audible reactions from the crowd did not go ignored, as Dixon responded, conversationally, to verbal outbursts from the house, and brava, Ella Mae. For her next show, Ms. Dixon might take a shot at picking out some people in the crowd and looking in their eyes, in giving some guests some one-on-one action - the difference in the connection will be discernible to all. To be clear: Ella Mae Dixon has a good connection with her audience. Now, let's make it a great one.

Of course, these are only two small observations designed to assist an up-and-comer to perfect their performance style, observations that Ella Mae Dixon may choose to discard, which is her right. And when an artist comes out of the gate at an eight, two little pieces of advice might, well, be superfluous. But Ella Mae Dixon could be a cabaret star operating at a ten, which she deserves because she has a genuinely special gift, particularly with vintage music. Indeed, after this debut show of Fifties music, this writer and cabaret frequenter is having visions of an Ella Mae Dixon series of shows, each one based on a decade from the Nineteen Twenties to the Nineteen Seventies (which, at this point, is vintage). Imagine Ella Mae Dixon in full-on flapper singing "Makin' Whoopee," in stockings with seams performing "Bei Mir Bist Du Schön", in gauntlets and peplum doing "Stardust," and so on and so forth, right up to bell bottoms and "Close To You." The music is good and Ella Mae Dixon is equal to the task. Now, that is a cabaret series and a cabaret star that is easy to picture.

Find great shows to see on the Birdland website HERE.

Visit the Ella Mae Dixon website HERE.

THIS is the Sean Harkness website.

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

To post a comment, you must register and login.