Review - Marilyn Maye at The Metropolitan Room: Love On The Rocks

The vocal miracle that is Marilyn Maye is once again working magic in the cozy confines of The Metropolitan Room, where, in the past two years, she's opened a wondrous quartet of engagements to break a 16-year exile from Manhattan.

I don't use the words "vocal miracle" lightly. The preservation of power and exacting, versatile tones from her 80-year-old cords produces vibrant sounds that singers a half-century younger would envy. Combine that with the phrasing artistry and emotional insight that comes from decades of wisdom and experience and you have a rare combination of gifts to enjoy.

Joined by what's become her regular trio of music director/arranger Ted Firth on piano (at only 31 he's become one of the brightest stars in his field) Tom Hubbard at bass and Jim Elkof at drums ("I've been with him longer than with all my husbands put together.") she sets a fun, relaxing mood with a light swing arrangement of Hal David and Burt Bacharach's "What The World Needs Now Is Love." What follows is a fascinating parade of seven Cole Porter standards ("Looking At You," "I Concentrate On You," "I Get A Kick Out Of You," "It's Alright With Me," "Just One Of Those Things," "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "All Of You") which, when sung sequentially, trace a relationship from first attraction to failed fling to lingering affection. Each song begins simply and grows in musical complexity, but segues to a fresh thought just before climaxing. The build of the arrangement and the emotional commitment of her performance are both quite exhilarating.

Love On The Rocks is what Maye calls this set because, as she explains, whenever people ask for requests they always seem to want sad songs. "People are happiest when they're sitting at a bar drinking and crying."

And while the remainder of her set lingers on the less successful side of love, this is no pity party. There's a still dignity to her emoting of Murray Grand and Elisse Boyd's heart-crushing "Guess Who I Saw Today?" and a lovely, wispy elegance she gives to Bill Barnes' "Something Cool." She builds "In The Wee Small Hours of the Morning" (David Mann & Bob Hilliard) to a majestic finish, but can be sweet, pretty and simple with a graceful sentiment like Rodgers and Hart's "Nobody's Heart."

Michael Stewart's lyric to the title song from I Love My Wife (set to Cy Coleman's music) gets an interesting twist as she sings it as "the other woman" who understands that although she enjoys a certain man's company, she'll never have his heart. She matter-of-factly concludes, "He loves his wife."

After one of her 76 appearances on The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson looked directly into the camera and advised any young singers watching to buy her albums if they wanted to learn "how it's done." I have no camera to look into but I'd advise any fledgling cabaret singers to consider the cost of attending one of Marilyn Maye's performances as an educational investment. For the rest of us, it's just ninety minutes of Heaven.

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