Review: DAVID MARINO SINGS MICHEL LEGRAND at Birdland Unparalleled Entertainment

David Marino returned to Birdland on Monday after spending eighteen months performing in La Ville-Lumière (read: Paris), and it was a most welcome return to the jazz club where he has been playing to sold-out audiences since March of 2024.  This was not his return to the New York stage - the Canadian crooner has been hard at work on both sides of the pond.  Why, only the night before his at-capacity Birdland show, he played two performances of a Tony Bennett tribute show with SONGBOOK SUNDAYS at Dizzy’s Club, and get a load of THIS cast - Marino, Debby Boone, Gabrielle Stravelli and Billy Stritch, as curated by Deborah Grace Winer.  These are the people with whom David should be singing, the best in the business, and with good reason: he belongs on the list of the best.  This show was only my second David Marino show but, after this, I won’t miss another.  Ever.  David Marino has effectively raised the bar, he has taken musical entertainment to the next level.  David Marino is the standard to which live music performers should aspire.

DAVID MARINO SINGS MICHEL LEGRAND isn’t a clever title, but it’s everything needed to gets bumms in seats, luv.  The mere idea of an evening of Michel Legrand should get anyone into a club, whoever is on the bill, but when one considers the musical possibilities available with Marino and Michel, the mind reels, as the Monday night audience learned, ovation after ovation.  The great thing about David Marino (one needs a list, actually, but let’s start with…) is the seamless effortlessness with which he fills the stage, the room, and the material that he is presenting.  He’s not doing a cabaret show, and at Birdland that is perfectly natural, but there is intention to his set.  There isn’t a script, but there is structure; and he speaks with ease about the music, about Legrand, about himself, about his life, and about his connection to Legrand’s compositions - and it is refreshing to see a young person speak so eloquently and knowledgeably about this composer whose generation was decades before his own.  For many of us, Michel Legrand’s music is the music with which we grew up, the music that informed our lives, our experiences, and, now, our memories.  For the youthful Mister Marino, it is all about the music and the way it makes him feel, as a person, as an artist, as a storyteller.  There is a purity in his performance that is informed, solely, by his relationship with the music, and that’s an exciting relationship to witness in action.  With his lighthearted, happy energy and rhetoric, David is able to draw the audience to his person, casually capturing hearts and attention simply by being himself.

Then he doubles down with the music.

Musically speaking DAVID MARINO SINGS MICHEL LEGRAND is perfect entertainment.  No notes are to be given.  For seventy minutes, the ears are treated to one of the most beautiful male voices on the scene today, maybe ever, wrapped around compositions that aren’t only glorious, they are significant in this history of songwriting.  Which lover of music doesn’t know “What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life?” or “The Summer Knows?” or “The Windmills of Your Mind”?  And which devotee of those songs doesn’t want to hear it perfectly performed by a luscious voice that seems, never, to make a single mistake?  Each of these most famous tunes were evening highlights, but consider, while watching Marino work, the honesty of emotion in the voice and on the face during “What Are You Doing…” or the technical proficiency with which he connects to the content AND his fellow creatives on the stage (the band was exquisite - please find their names at the end of this review) during “The Summer Knows” or the gravitas present in the performance of “Windmills” (melded, here, with “Je Ne Pourrai Jamais Vivre Sans Toi ”), including a stupendous solo by Tedd Firth at the piano.  These three cuts alone were worth the price of admission, but Marino and co. brought their A-game with a show that included two different renditions of “You Must Believe in Spring” (a sophisticated ballad-into-jazz treatment in French, and a serene, simple encore in English), a scat-singing infused “Quand ça Balance” that opened the show with a bang, a jaunty and jovial “Ask Yourself Why” that countered the ballads, an “Amour en Scie” that got a huge reaction from the audience, a furious and fun “Brûle Pas Tes Doigts” that required lightning-fast lyric pronunciation, and a luscious, intimate “How Do You Keep The Music Playing?” - it was an embarrassment of riches, a night filled with memorable moments.   One of the memorable moments was the introduction to the crowd of the sensational Kate Kortum, winner of the 14th Annual Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition.  Ms. Kortum, the possessor of a unique vocal instrument and a style to suit it, dueted with Mr. Marino on a fantastic tune titled “Sweet Gingerbread Man” that provided the twosome with some fantastic harmonies and some playful acting moments, complete with eyeball conversations and giggles galore.  The reason for this sweet on-stage pairing presents itself on the David Marino website:  the duo will kick off their tour next year on January 17th at Jazz at Lincoln Center (information HERE), and audiences far and wide should just snap up their tickets now.

In spite of all of the highlights already mentioned in this write-up, there are two moments from the performance that have burned themselves onto this writer’s brain.  The first was a blistering treatment of “Pieces of Dreams” with a jazz flavor that built as the performance grew, until the entire room was infused with an electricity that caused the heart to pound, and, in a private moment after the show, my plus-one complimented Musical Director Tedd Firth for the arrangement, only to be told, “Thank you, but the arrangements are all David.”   The second of these particular moments was a performance of “Once Upon A Summertime” that brought all of Marino’s acting skills into the light - literally, for Tony Mastroberti’s beautiful lighting design (the best I’ve, yet, seen on the Birdland stage) was so focused on David’s face that the expressiveness of his eyes was akin to watching a closeup of a Judy Garland movie.  Readers who have followed my reviews might remember that when I reviewed David’s Pangea show in February of 2025, I compared the quality of his entertainment to that of the legendary singer and actress.  I stand by that appraisal.  Not only are Marino’s vocals perfection in every way, the manner in which he communicates the story through acting skills is beyond reproach.  This is the highest quality of musical storytelling for which a music aficionado can hope - it’s just that simple.  But, friends, don’t take my word for it.  Find out where David is playing, get a ticket, and see the proof positive yourself; you won’t regret it. 

Find great shows to see on the Birdland website HERE.

THIS is the David Marino website.

The DAVID MARINO SINGS MICHEL LEGRAND BAND was made up of four amazing musicians named Ray Cleaver (Trumpet), David Finck (Bass), Mark McLean (Drums) and Musical Director Tedd Firth (Piano).

Photos by Stephen Mosher

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