BWW Reviews: Janine Gilbert Carter Smoothly Mixes Jazz, Blues, and Gospel Vocal Styles In Solid Performance at the Metropolitan Room

Janine Gilbert Carter and her estimable trio personify classical traditions. Jazz, Blues, and Gospel are handled with ease and authority. Nothing gets insistently loud, experimentally unmelodic, or lyrically updated. Musicians take solos in turn. Embellishment is deft, textural, and, in my opinion, thankfully within the mood parameters of each song. There's appeal in familiarity when backed by solid talent. This is head-bobbing, shoulder-swaying entertainment.

Carter has her own way with most recognized numbers, slip-sliding octaves with an invisible shrug of brio, expanding words to multi-syllables. Tensile phrases emerge without breath being visibly taken. Singing seems as natural as breathing to this earthy, unpretentious performer. She leans in to and looks around her audience as if we're family.

Carter's show last night at the Metropolitan Room was prefaced by guest vocalist Kim Mills' mid-tempo, bossa nova rendition of "You Stepped Out of a Dream." Mills delivered smooth, cottony tone and likeable nonchalance for a genre which should feel like warm breeze. Vincent Smith III quietly scatted at the piano. Jeff Neal's brushes stroked. Wes Biles's bass tiptoed out.

Resplendent in red, Carter began with a palpably warm; gospel tinted R&B "Everything Must Change" in which every lyric seemed meaningful. Really, we were her flock. Similar reaction is evoked with "People Make the World Go Round" as part of the audience came in on its chorus. Bass guitar rhythm reached inside while Carter sang above it as if skating on air.

Johnny Mercer's "Candy" swung: Candy, I call my sugar Candy/Because I'm sweet on Candy/And Candy's sweet on me . . . The artist had fun with the song, vocally winking. "He thinks I'm talkin' about him," she said grinning at Biles, then ably scatting in conversation with his bass. Both sounds were warm and round-edged.

"Teach Me Tonight" conjured the kind of close dancing through which one barely moves. Phrases swung out like hula hoops, circling Carter in complete control. "Be a Sweet Pumpkin" was light, bright, and bouncy, some of it convincingly spoken. Her audience can't help but smile back at the singer. An occasional lyric was also spoken during "Don't Touch Me," the only real blues in the show. A bump n' grind arrangement and sassy, determined performance came up against an unfitting smile, however.

Christmas songs rounded out the evening: The funky, Motown "Please Come Home For Christmas" and infectiously happy "This Christmas" are paired with "The Christmas Song," during which Carter sounds like a female Nat King Cole, and a sincere "Oh Holy Night" whose lyric she surreptitiously reads.

At just over an hour and with songs cut from a show's set list, the over 10-minute, promotional introduction by a radio producer was a poor way to start. That aside, Carter's next New York show is definitely something to look forward to.

Janine Gilbert Carter
Wes Biles- Musical Director/Bass
Vincent Smith III-Piano, Jeff Neal-Drums
The Metropolitan Room 34 West 22nd St.
December 21, 2014
Venue Calendar: http://metropolitanroom.com/index.cfm

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