Review: Singer DAVID MARINO Is a Knockout at Birdland

If Artificial Intelligence — or a scientist isolating DNA strands that determine voice quality and style — could create a singing voice with the best qualities of Mel Tormé, Bobby Darin, and Vic Damone, you’d have a synthesis resembling the delightful and dashing David Marino.  But I don’t think his prodigious charm and smile could be bottled.  If they were, the label on the bottle would proclaim “Contains No Artificial Ingredients!”   The clean-cut charismatic Canadian crooner –  confident, but not cocky, polished but not slick — has his own fresh energy and authenticity.  His timbre is instantly appealing to the ear, and his high head tones are so darn pretty and pure that reviewers need not feel awkward in invoking the adjective “angelic.”  Now closing in on the quarter-century mark in age, he’s been performing for quite a while already,  studying singing and violin since his elementary school days and leaping to wide notoriety as a teenager while competing on a season of the TV singing competition show La Voix, the Canadian edition of The Voice. He came in third.

The merry Marino opened with the refreshing choice of “Sweet Gingerbread Man” (music: Michel Legrand; lyric: Alan & Marilyn Bergman) from the 1970 film The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart.  Indeed a sweet choice, it let him express joie de vivre, spin like a top, take ownership of the breadth of the stage, and interact with the musical trio on the accented affirmations of “uh-huh, uh-huh.”  He was in the solid and happy company of regulars at Birdland and other nightclub venues: bassist Tom Hubbard, drummer Daniel Glass, and primo pianist Billy Stritch (all favorite “play”mates of Marilyn Maye, who was in the audience, among other already-clued-in or soon-to-be-clued-in cabaret folks).  Besides his basic sound, there were other things that were clear right from the get-go: he radiates professionalism and eagerness; his gestures are natural and apt; his phrasing is conversational; his diction is excellent.    

The repertoire was satisfyingly diverse, encompassing material born in different parts of the world in different decades.  There were musical nods to his Italian background and songs taking advantage of a bi-lingual Canadian native being able to sing in French. He showed expert comic timing parsing the lyric of  “And Her Mother Came, Too” (introduced over 100 years ago, written by the UK’s Ivor Novello).  He grooved on the Brazilian classic “One-Note Samba.”  And then there’s the Great American Songbook writers, of course: Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim, and the Gershwins were all represented, and Irving Berlin’s work came in for multiple sampling, including a plucky vocal duet with Billy Stritch (who added cheeky spoken asides) on “You’re Just in Love,” that counterpoint number you can count on as an audience-pleaser.  

The especially strong/he-can-do-no-wrong-with-any-song night scored high points on the Serious Sincere Scale three times.  These were: (1) a vulnerable and well-considered rendition of “Blame It on My Youth”; (2) a rich version of Paul McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed” that deepened it for me; (3) the spoken comments about beloved family members that got the singer sharing gratitude-soaked memories and getting choked up.  This seemed to solidify the palpable audience affection and appreciation that had been building.  To sum it all up in a word: BRAVO!

For more, you can follow David Marino on Instagram.

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