Review: Susan Mack Packs 'Em In at Birdland with 'TIS AUTUMN

Last night, Susan Mack returned to Birdland, her usual musical playground, with her autumnal show, appropriately titled ‘TIS AUTUMN, and, as usual, there was not an empty seat in the club.  Indeed, at the merch station, one could spot improvised dining by way of dinner plates atop linens draped over the glass case, and barstools to accommodate the guests.  It is always a pleasure to see an artist sell out a room, and clubs willing to do all they can to see to it that their clientele get to enjoy their artists.   And, given the response to ‘Tis Autumn, enjoy this artist, they did. 

Ms. Mack has built up a solid reputation as a jazz singer, and part of that reputation is the fact that she has consistently played to sold-out houses at the venerated club that hosts her shows.  For this writer who was seeing Mack for the first time, the proof was in the performance, and it has to be said: the reputation has been earned.   It is a pleasure to listen to Susan Mack sing.  In fact, sometimes it was a surprise.  Taking in an artist for the first time is like being on a first date, and as the layers unfurl, as the stranger before you drops veil after veil, as you come to see the different facets of their personality (of their artistry), there should be nods of endorsement, there should be smiles of enjoyment, and there should be raised eyebrows of wonderment.   Such was this writer’s experience of Susan Mack.  At first blush, the whiskey tones of the lady’s voice come across as sultry and expressive, a genuinely pretty voice to listen to, with luscious low notes and tons of texture, but as opening number “Thumbs Up” progresses, there is the surprise of some range, and then the surprise of power, as you realize this is not a jazz singer who is going to utilize Tedd Firth’s treatments to silkily slip through a set of smoky vocals - this is a singer who has come to run the gamut.  And that is exactly what Mack did last night.  Although the moniker “jazz singer” has been applied to her style, and although there are jazz treatments and scat singing, not every performance last  night was created for a jazz set.  Jazz was on the menu, but Susan Mack knows her way around a pop song, too.  Mr. Firth (who, let’s face it, can do anything) gives Ms. Mack a clean, simple, straightforward arrangement for “Colors of the Wind,” which the lady executed as though it were 1995 and she was in the recording booth laying down tracks for an album.  Susan Mack put her versatility on display, both versatility in song styles, and vocal variety, and it was noticeable.   Observe the ease with which Mack jockeys back and forth between the more modern aesthetic of Stevie Wonder (represented by two different numbers) and the more vintage sounds of Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and Cab Calloway, as showcased in an evening highlight, a mashup of “Frim Fram Sauce” and “Everybody Eats When They Come To My House.”   The Wonder compositions offer Mack an opportunity for some contemporary sounds full of fluidity, and the vintage cuts resonate with a Vaudevillian vibe, loaded with crisp phrasing of voluble stanzas, to say nothing of the playful nature of the food-oriented medley, deftly treated by Tedd.  It is a treat to see a singer not content to be locked into a certain style, a particular lane, especially when they have the skill to traverse different musical lanes with ease.

There are other elements to the success of the Susan show, too.  Take, for instance, the storytelling.  Susan Mack is not an actress.  She isn’t a stage actress singing in a club on her nights off, she isn’t a television actress who sings in clubs when she’s on hiatus.  Susan Mack is a singer.  She has made a study of vocal technique, of jazz styles, of scat singing, of breath control, of belting.  But Susan Mack has come to tell stories, and that she does.  Note the way she pulls back from the powerful passages of “Alfie” to tenderly translate the more heartfelt moments built into Bacharach’s music and lyrics.  Observe the specificity of her diction and breathing while performing the modern-day classic “When October Goes.”  Susan Mack uses her singer’s tools to tell the stories she and Firth have selected for her fall outing, and she is checking off the boxes… even the ones we didn’t know about - for Susan Mack is a poet and a songwriter, as the crowd was to learn twice in one night.

Two of the highlights in Ms. Mack’s show were the presentation of a new song titled “October” (combined with “When October Goes”) that was born out of a poem Mack wrote in 1976, a poem for which Tedd Firth created a melody in 2025, and a super clever song titled “This Too Shall Pass” for which Mack provided both lyrics and music, inspired by her mother, who was in the audience last night.   Both songs must be taken into the recording studio STAT.  The music listening world needs them.   The only thing is, on a recording, audiences won’t get to hear the humorous and human stories Susan Mack tells about the creation of both songs, stories that rolled off her tongue with a kind of charm unique to Mack.  Throughout her set last night, Susan Mack chatted casually, as though she had no script, which is unlikely, given the fact that she works closely with director and teacher Lina Koutrakos, who is dedicated to the notion that shows need a script.  The extemporaneous air of the dialogue had an awkward kind of charm to it, as though we were in Mack’s living room and she were speaking off the top of her head, sometimes tangentially; indeed, at one point, she coached herself to “stop babbling, Susan,” eliciting a round of laughter from the crowd.  It was charming.  But when the time came to talk about her teenage experience writing the poem that would become “October,” or the recent journey of channeling an event involving her mother into “This Too Shall Pass,” it was as though she were working off of a well-thought-out, well-rehearsed script… and she was.  It’s called storytelling, and the best stories come from our real-life experiences, sometimes as monologues, sometimes as songs.  

Aside from her own contributions to her Birdland set, Ms. Mack is fortunate in her ‘Tis Autumn cast members.  There is excellent and artistic support from her crackerjack band, Geoff Burke (Saxophone/Flute), David Finck (Bass), Eric Halvorson (Drums), and Tedd Firth Musical Directing from the Piano - this is a band you want to hear when you go to a club, but it’s also a band you want supporting you when you’re on a stage.  These proficients lift their headliner up with their artistry and skill, as does lighting/sound designer Pascal Pahl, who masterfully chose moments when a little reverb would enrich a story, and who always kept the vocals in front of the band.  There was some good tech at Birdland last night.  Good songs, good band, and a sold-out Susan Mack show, which should surprise nobody, since it is turning out to be a regular thing at Birdland.  It will be fun to see what blossoms in the spring for Mack and co. - I’m glad I finally came to the party.

Find great shows to see on the Birdland website HERE.

Susan Mack is on Instagram HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher