Review: Joanie Pallatto MY ORIGINAL PLAN UNPLUGGED at Pangea Is Essential Cabaret Viewing

Mere blocks away from Pangea, where we were headed for the Joanie Pallatto show, my husband and I passed a man strutting up 2nd avenue. He wore pointy-toed black snakeskin boots, black silver-studded slacks that served as a second skin, an ochre-colored shirt that was open-down-to-there, exposing his creamy caramel-colored muscles, sunglasses big enough to shut out the imaginary spotlight into which he was pummeling but light enough to allow his guyliner to show through the lens, and a black hat with a brim so wide as to render Rose DeWitt Bukater jealous. His shoulders were back, his chin was high, and he was singing along with the music in his AirPods; he was living his best life. As he passed, Pat turned to me and said, "I'm so happy I was here to see that." For twenty-eight years (on that very day, October 1st) we have lived in New York City, and each time that we see something amazing, wonderful, fantastic, and fabulous one of us says to the other, "I'm so happy I was here to see that."

Ninety minutes later, exiting Pangea after seeing "My Original Plan", Pat said to me, once again, "I'm so happy I was here to see that."

My Original Plan is the name of Joanie Pallatto's new album of original music, and though the album is worth picking up and listening to, the experience of seeing Joanie Pallatto live is one unparalleled because what the Lady presented on Friday night was one of the most interesting and rewarding nights I've ever spent in a cabaret room; indeed, looking at the notes I scribbled while not daring to take my eyes from the stage, I discovered the sentence "THIS is cabaret." Performing alongside the extraordinary guitarist Fareed Haque, Joanie Pallatto was a mass of contradiction on the Pangea stage, intensely dramatic in her storytelling, yet always down-to-earth and relatable. Like a flamboyant yet introspective beat performer from days gone by, Ms. Pallatto often appeared to go some otherworldly place during the musical numbers... unless the storytelling was better served by her staying with the audience, working with the intimacy of the cozy room, stepping off the stage to reach her hand into the hands of various people at the tables in front of her. A true artist and Mistress of the Medium, Ms. Pallatto requires no consideration of what her next move will be on the stage: she knows it, instinctively, embodying perfectly that all-important balance between authenticity and entertainment. Each time that Joannie took a few minutes to talk to the crowd, she appeared unscripted, extemporaneous, yet absolutely economic with her words and always one hundred percent in the moment - relaxed, at ease, and at home on the stage, an interpreter in the living room.

And the songs she has been sent to interpret... audible sigh.

Some of the songs on MY ORIGINAL PLAN were penned by Pallatto herself (like the visceral-as-a-low-moan "Apart", which details her reaction to the pandemic and quarantine), while others were created in collaboration with pianist-composer-husband Sparrow (like "Joyce and Roy", which presents, in ways weird and wonderful, a very interesting relationship between a devoted duo) and every composition is an over-the-top artistic creation. They're not over the top in that overreacting to an unhappy situation meltdown kind of way; these compositions (and Joanie's performances) are over the top in that way that makes you sit in the audience of the club asking yourself what rooms inside of her did Joanie have to open and enter to uncover, to create, to inhabit such depth of discovery? With lyrics that thoroughly capture the essence of beat poetry, yet music that rides on top of Fareed's guitar playing like an impossible-to-follow modern jazz melody line, songs like "Do Butterflies Cry?" become philosophy in a cabaret room, only enhanced by the inclusion of dancer Tania Daley, who, thrice, joined Joanie and Fareed on a stage the size of a postage stamp to bring to life a visual interpretation of the tale Pallatto was telling. Add in emotional spoken performances by actor Bill Nolte and unbelievable music at the hands of pianist Sparrow, and the nearly-full house at Pangea was swimming in a show simultaneously reminiscent and modern, almost as though a time machine was allowing us to witness the Martha Graham of jazz reinventing the genre in order to give her listeners an experience so new, so unique, so steeped in the ability that artists have to inform, to stimulate, to lead to a higher plane in the field of performing arts as to electrify every fiber of their physical being. It was one of the most exciting, odd, life-affirming, and eye-catching shows ever, indeed, it was exactly what cabaret should be.

I'm so happy I was there to see it.

Joanie Pallatto MY ORIGINAL PLAN CD RELEASE PARTY was a one-off but other great shows can be found at the Pangea website HERE.

Read about Joanie Pallatto online HERE.

Read about Bradley Parker-Sparrow online HERE.

Visit the Fareed Haque website HERE.

Visit the Tania Daley website HERE.

Visit the Bill Nolte website HERE.

Joanie Pallatto MY ORIGINAL PLAN can be found on Amazon, Pandora, YouTube Music and iHeart Radio

Joanie Pallatto gets a five out of five microphones rating for performing her entire show without the use of a lyric sheet, tablet, or music stand.

Photos by Stephen Mosher