Review: James Barbour's THE HOLIDAY CONCERT Is an Annual Tradition at Birdland

December 12th was the night for the annual Christmas concert, live and live-streamed, with James Barbour and his guests. At Birdland, the booming Barbour baritone that musical theater fans have experienced in dramatically grand roles in productions such as A Tale of Two Cities, Jane Eyre, and as the title characters in The Phantom of the Opera and Beauty and the Beast (of course, I’m referring to the Beast, although his voice is a beauty).  Although his sound was gentler as he began some songs and occasionally was subdued on isolated phrases here and there, creating moments of intimacy, he didn’t often hold back on displaying his chops. Wondering what to compare this to, I was struck by part of the lyric describing “A song high above the trees, with a voice as big as the sea.” 

Indeed!  Well, we weren’t high above trees (Christmas trees or others), but instead in the downstairs space at the venue and the resonating ocean-sized voice was thrilling to hear on that selection, “Do You Hear What I Hear?” and other numbers addressing the religious side of the holiday and the secular side, such as his opening number “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”

Presented at a leisurely pace, with lots of talk, this was a long program compared to the typical cabaret act or jazz set. Along the way, he gave the Chanukkah ditty about a homemade “Dreidel” a whirl, presented an impressive self-penned number called “Happy Christmas Day,” led an audience sing-along on “The 12 Days of Christmas” with solo lines awarded to volunteers in the crowd, and also invited the spectators to participate in a live auction to bid on miniature dolls dressed as one of Babrbour’s stage characters to raise money for charity.  The generous winner pledged  five hundred dollars.  As has been his tradition, money coming in from the auction, ticket sales, and additional donations by “V.I.P.” sponsors invited to an after-party go to a worthy cause, this year funding medical help for patients with A.L.S. who can’t afford treatment.

While some performers have terse, scripted and memorized patter between some of their songs, James Barbour’s remarks didn’t seem to fit those descriptions, although he clearly had much he intended to talk about. It was sometimes rambling and repetitive, sometimes amusing, sometimes drenched with praise for his guests as he introduced them, and sometimes intense (talking about the annual holiday concert and his other events as ways to bring people of different backgrounds and views together to respected and understand each other “because we’re all really the same”).

Referring many times to his previous Christmas concerts, he paused before launching into songs to ask audience members to raise their hands if they’d been at the first program in 2008, if they’d attended another one, or to point out how recently or how long ago he’d included the selection at hand, or to ask his capable pianist, Rachel Kaufman, when or how often they’d performed it together.  Perhaps he was thinking and wondering out loud or wrapped up in bright Christmas memories the way beloved Christmas gifts are wrapped up in colorful paper.  He kibbitzed with some of his guests, especially the plucky showman Dale Badway turning up the heat on those “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” and doing “Blue Christmas” in Elvis Presley mode.  He served up an audience-pleasing slice of ham to add to this Christmas banquet.  Other singing colleagues (Bradley Kieper, Jessica Ferguson, and Blair Johnson) got less stage time/conversation and presented standards straightforwardly.               

Alternately earnest, chatty, cheery, or electrifying, James Barbour treated the attendees with attention and determined friendliness, teasing, telling true tales about his family, career, early life, life philosophy, and Christmas – and all presented to raise funds for a worthy cause.

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See www.jamesbarbour.com to learn more about James Barbour.

Visit www.Birdlandjazzz.com for more upcoming shows at the venue.

Photos of James Barbour (alone and with his pianist Rachel Kaufman) by Kevin Alvey

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