It was the first chilly night of the season, but it was all warmth at The Salon, where the quirky theme, “Anything Goes” was fully in effect! Our co-host was the illustrious and silky-voiced, Tanya Holt.
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| Co-host Tanya Holt |
Tanya kicked off the evening with a playful rendition of, “Frim Fram Sauce” made famous by the Nat King Cole Trio. Luckily, we have amazing food at venue, Etc Etc, because I got pretty hungry after hearing that song! Salon regular, Lou Iacovino, was the first to the mic, singing the charming classic, “I Can’t Believe I’m Losing You.” Lou will be singing a few songs with his friend Jeannie in a new show at Don’t Tell Mama on December 1 - stay tuned for more details!
Bobbie Horowitz said there were lots of mommies in the audiences that should listen closely to her original song: “Shows Ta Go Ya” - as usual, her lyrics were clever and had the audience in stitches! Natasha Castillo sang a heartfelt, “Brave.” This newcomer is growing and growing as a performer, and it has been wonderful seeing it happen here at The Salon! Natasha has a show, “Anything but Ordinary,” coming up at The Duplex - November 2, 10, and 16 with Steven Ray Watkins and directed by Lennie Watts.
Dana Lorge started by saying that her song, a rare love song, was being dedicated to “a man in the back who I’ve been flirting with, and then bait and switched us with the hilarious, “No Shit.” Bob Diamond sang the beautiful waltz, “When I Grow Too Old To Dream.” In December, Bob will be performing at The Mansion in NJ, and in February he’ll be bringing back his show to Don’t Tell Mama. Jackie Kristel, accompanied by Tracy Stark, sang the charming, “Joshua Noveck.” Jackie just did debut show at Don’t Tell Mama called “A Girl You Should Know.” She has two more dates: October 26 and December 7.
Tracy stayed at the piano and Gretchen Reinhagen came to the mic, introducing us to the charming original song, “Little Saturn,” with music by Tracy Stark / lyrics by Michael Quinn. We love it when writers & talented performers show off new material at The Salon. Thanks, ladies! Jennifer Sheehan came up to show off “You Make Me Laugh,” a tune that she’ll be performing at the Metropolitan Room this month in “Hopelessly In Love: The Lyrics of Tom Toce.” The show is directed by Peter Napolitano and musically directed by Matthew Martin Ward (who played for her this evening.)
Janice Hall wowed the crowd as always, with a simple and charming, “Have You Ever Crossed Over to Sneden’s.” Janice is having a great time in DC rehearsing “James Joyce’s The Dead.” Wish we could take the whole Salon crowd to see it! Erin Cronican, you very own blogette, sang “Someone Else’s Story” from the musical, Chess. Your Etcerette, Maureen Taylor, was next with a glorious, “Migratory V” from Myths and Hymns by Adam Guettel.
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| Salon Spotlight - Corinna Sowers Adler |
We were thrilled to have Corinna Sowers Adler with us as tonight’s Salon Spotlight. She has a show coming up next week “By Request” - the way to works is that people could email her with a special request of what to sing, and include a reason why the song was important to them. So, Corinna decided to sing two songs from the show (but you have to see the show to hear the stories!)
Corinna started with “The Singer” - a unique and quirky song, much like the career of many singers! The next song was a song that can only be sung a couple of weeks out of the year - Frank Wildhorn’s “When Autumn Comes.” As Corinna started the final song of the set, she explained she got 3 requests for this song, so she says she pretty much had to do it! So, for her first time ever, she performed “Meadowlark” for an audience -- and it was for us!
Classical Corner
Salon founder and host, Mark Janas, started Classical corner by saying he thought it would be fun to see what happens if we invent Classical Corner together. He started by asking folks in the audience to name their favorite composer.
The first that was shouted out was “Pachelbel’s Canon” a composer AND piece of music. Mark said that, for him, this piece brings up the idea of variations… but since it also reminds him of weddings he’d opt out for this classical corner. Barber was suggested next. Mark said that he studied the Barber concerto in college but got severe tendonitis so he wouldn’t try it today. Chopin was next, and at first mark said that he played Chopin too often at The Salon, but he said he might play something later. I suggested Wagner, and for a bit he talked about the Ring Cycle.
Finally someone suggested Erik Satie, someone whose music he happened to bring with him. Satie used to get together with a french composer in a sort of artist’s salon. Satie was one of the first minimalists before Phillip Glass, his music was avant grade for its time because of it’s spareness. To illustrate, Mark played, “Three Gymnopedies No 1.”
Next up, Mark talked about Chopin’s Etudes (French for studies, technical exercises for pianists) and how they got nicknames based on how they sounded. Mark played the “Octave” Etude in B Minor, the “Ocean” Etude in C Minor (that sounded so much like the ocean) and the playful “Butterfly” Etude in G Flat.
For the final piece of the evening, Mark brought us Bach’s “The Well Tempered Clavier” Fugue in D Major. Like our theme ”Anything Goes”, there was a time when rhythms and keys were less strict. Mark mentioned that he learned from Christopher Hogwood that if baroque music didn’t dance, it died. It was oriented to the music of the dance, and if you can find THAT, you find the heart of the music. The dotted notes (1/8th and 1/16ths) were often taken with a grain of salt- they were a little bit longer with the shorter note even shorter (with a little lift), which caused the people in powdered wigs to get up and do pirouettes - the music mimicking the lifts of dance and changing positions. Mark admitted that his interpretation would probably be seen as going to far, but as the theme is Anything Goes, he decided to ‘er rip! And the piece was phenomenal. :)
Second Set
Tanya Holt, an amazing vocal storyteller, started her set with “The Very Thought Of You” with amazing accompaniment by Mark Janas. Next up was the classic, “Mr Bojangles “- a touching story song about a homeless man. Her final song of the set was “Daddy-o” - the song promises to “teach Daddy-O, gonna teach you the blues” - Tanya certainly taught it to us tonight!
Salon Producer, Tanya Moberly, brought in the classic, “I Get A Kick Out Of You” from Cole Porter’s Anything Goes. Tanya just opened her show, “Tanya Lorraine Moberly sings Barbra Joan Streisand with Steven Ray Watkins” at Don’t Tell Mama - 3 more shows are coming up Oct 18, Nov 14 and Dec 4. All shows are at 7pm. There are discounts for Salon members - be sure to make reservations in advance.
Stephanie Zagoren was next with “Autumn in New York” - one of the lovelier songs I’ve heard Stephanie do. We’re so glad to have her with us! Barb Malley charmed us with the adorable, “It Amazes Me.” She gave us a special warning - she bought a Halloween costume before discovering that she would be having hip surgery on October 25. So, she’ll be wearing her costume to The Salon on October 21 - I can’t wait!
Joann Sicoli was next with the classic, “The Birth of the Blues.” She’ll be visiting family in Italy and while there she will be doing two shows - how I wish I could be there with her! David Ballard with a lovely ballad, “You Walk With Me.” Teresa Fischer Invited up her accompanist and arranger, Andrew David Sotomayor and they performed the original tune, “Crayola Doesn’t Make A Color For Your Eyes.” This song is on her Debut CD, called Let It Go.
Bill Zeffiro, Salon Board member and all around jolly man, started out with one of the classics, “Imagine” by John Lennon… but then it morphed into a sardonic derivation of that classic. Lianne Marie Dobbs brought her classic, deep tones to “Plenty of Time” by “Kander & Ebb”. Lianne has her debut solo show coming up - “Everything Old is New Again” October 22nd, 9:30pm at the Metropolitan Room. Be sure to check it out!
Marissa Mulder, 2011 MetroStar winner, sang, “It Never Was You.” She is bringing back her show “Illusions” one more time, October 25 at the Metropolitan Room on Tuesday at 7pm - it’s also a CD release show, as CDs of the show will be available after the show! Jaye Maynard was next with “Hey John”, a song written for John Lennon. She is doing a show, “Bird Amongst The Blossom- A Tribute to the Blossom Dearie Songbook” at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, October 23 at 7pm and October 28 at 1pm. What a wonderful idea!
Joan Jaffe was next with “Too Old To Die Young.” Joan has a show coming up - “Joan Jaffe’s Manha-ha-ha-ttan” at the Abingdon Theater as a part of their Sunday Series, October 14 at 7pm. Our final song of the evening was sung by our amazing co-host, Tanya Holt - “Laughing Masters.”
News: We were excited to have from friends from Cabaret Scenes with us for the evening, writing up some thoughts on our Open Mic for their readers. We'll post the article when it publishes.
Special Thanks to David and Samuel for their fabulous service at Etc Etc, Tommy Shull on lights/sounds, and all of our awesome Salon family members.
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| Next week's co-host, Natalie Douglas |
Our Salon Spotlight will feature Pamela Luss! Pamela will be appearing with Houston Person at The Metropolitan Room – 34 West 22nd St, NYC, 212-206-0440 /www.metropolitanroom.com – Saturday, October 20that 7pm, Thursday, November 15th at 9:30pm and Saturday, November 17th at 9:30pm. For more information: www.pamelaluss.com.
Next week's theme is, “Freedom Songs.” Sing a song that makes you feel free or makes you yearn for freedom. Remember, any material, on or off theme, is always welcome at Salon.
We’ll see you then! In the meantime, if someone video recorded your performance and you’d like us to know about it, please post the link in the comments section of this blog post. Thank you!
-Erin Cronican
Blogette for The Salon
Need anything? Please email me.
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