Review: SONGBOOK SUNDAYS Stays Sweet At Dizzy's Club

June 11th saw another stellar production of the SONGBOOK SUNDAYS series at Dizzy’s Club.  Part of the Jazz At Lincoln Center programming, this ongoing series of shows curated and hosted by show business savant, writer Deborah Grace Winer, Songbook Sundays was a  hit from its very first performance.  To date, the series has honored the legacies of The Gershwins, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, Lerner and Loewe, Rodgers and Hart, and, now, Fats Waller.  Every installment of the series features three singers from the worlds of Broadway and jazz - usually a leading lady of the ‘diva’ ilk from the theater set, a leading man from either the jazz or Broadway stage, and an up-and-coming vocalist from the jazz world.  Those categories are, at times, a little blurry, but that is the basic structure of each performance, all of which are helmed and hosted by Winer, who knows all the facts, trivia and histories - stories that she shares with obvious adoration for the composers and the gift that they have given the world through their artistry.  To date, there has not been one single iteration of Songbook Sundays that has not ranked as world class entertainment, securing one rave review after another while presenting talents on the Dizzy’s stage that have audiences cheering.

Those talents are not limited to the vocalists.  Every Songbook Sundays cast features jazz musicians curated by the fine folks at Jazz At Lincoln Center, and there is always at least one number that belongs, solely, to the band - all of these instrumentals (or, as was the case with the Fats Waller show, NOT instrumentals) are crowd pleasers.  Everyone tasked with the casting of the Songbook Sundays shows goes the extra distance to ensure that the audience will get the best.

For SAVIN’ MY LOVE FOR FATS WALLER, the cast included jazz proficient Karrin Allyson, Broadway actress and jazz singer Aisha de Haas, and up-and-comer Tyreek McDole at the microphones, with the remarkable band being made up of Kenny Davis on Bass, Tony Cintron on Drums, Ed Jackson on Tenor Sax, and (it has to be said: Amazing) Musical Director Richard Cummings at the Piano.  For one hour these beautiful artists engaged a sold-out nightclub with songs like “Jitterbug Waltz” (performed by Karrin), “Cash For Your Trash” (in Aisha’s incomparable hands), and “Black and Blue” (an evening highlight with Tyreek doing the honors), and although the entire evening was as palatable and pleasing as the previous Songbook Sundays performances, there was a special magic in the air when Mr. Cummings took off his red bowler (worn when playing the keys, only) to serve as pianist AND singer for “It’s a Sin To Tell A Lie” - the gentleman is something special, and he and the band brought down the house with this particular number.  

One of the nicest things about Songbook Sundays (aside from everything happening on the stage) is looking around the room (the windows overlooking Central Park allow for a lot of light) to see how much the audience is enjoying the cabaret concert.  Every installment of the series this writer has attended has yielded heartwarming visions of patrons who love this music as much as Deb Winer, as much as the cast of artists performing, and as much as we, ourselves, love it.  And the knowledge of the shared experience and shared love sort of bonds us together for those sixty minutes that we are strangers in a club, listening, and loving.  The Fats Waller show was no exception to the observing experience - indeed, it was a little bit more than the previous shows because, as Deborah Grace Winer pointed out in her script, Fats Waller is all about joy.  The catalogue of songs presented this last weekend was pure joy, and that’s what the audience appeared to be feeling and, hopefully, that’s what everyone took with them, back into the summer night of Manhattan, which is why Winer and co. do these shows: to spread joy, and, that, they did and do.

The next Songbook Sundays will be CAN’T HELP LOVIN’ Jerome Kern and will play August 13th and 5 pm and 7:30 pm.  Information and reservations are on the Dizzy’s Club website HERE.

Deborah Grace Winer has a website HERE.

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

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