By Alix Cohen
Mary Foster Conklin is a veteran jazz/cabaret vocalist. That she’s also a radio DJ (“A Broad Spectrum – The Ladies of Jazz” WFDU 89.1 FM, streaming live on their HD2 Channel -Jazz and What’s More) is reflected in refreshingly eclectic song choices. Celebrated musician John Di Martino and bassist Yoshi Waki support a performance of decisive phrasing, agile, controlled vocals, and taste.
Conklin eases in with a Latin-tinted “Speak Low” (Kurt Weill/Ogden Nash.) She’s never still. Movement ranges from vibration, to the edge of dancing. It’s as if music physically tickles on its way out.
“Moonglow” (Irving Mills/Eddie DeLange/Will Hudson) effortlessly finds higher notes. The vocalist stretches up. Piano emerges soft shoe tempo. It slides, turns, toe-heels. A no fuss rendition.
New to me, Diedre Rodman Struck’s “Little D’s Daydream” is a jazz waltz. “My favorite anti-depressant,” Conkin comments. “In a world where eyes are blind behind glasses…” The haunting melody lingers. Long notes hang like incense in a chapel.
The vocalist’s recent single, “Some Cats Know” (Jerry Lieber/Mike Stoller) is about as cool as it gets. Arriving nice n’slow, endorsed by foot tapping rhythm, Conklin’s voice slip/slides with expertise. Shoulders swing and sway. This is a song that takes experience to deliver well. You have to “get it.”
“This tune played on the jukebox when I was in college,” introduces Leon Russell’s “Masquerade.” Often associated with corny, middle-of-the-road singers, it arrives here distinctly different. It’s as if she’s confiding in us.
At the piano, a puppeted Di Martino nods, shakes his head, scrunches his eyes, pushes chin and chest forward. Bass is all shadows. Second verse vocal climbs in at the top as if through a window; deep and whispering, afraid of being caught.
With “Just for Now” (Andre Previn/Dory Langdon Previn), one can’t help wonder whether Dory was prescient. (Andre left her for Mia Farrow.) Staccato piano phrases with cursive tails bolster.: “So let me show you how to love me/Not forever, I’d never ask forever/To love me, not forever, just for now…”
Conklin recalls singing Tom Waits’ “Rainbow Sleeves” from a friend’s fire escape when it was exposed to the newly opened Highline. A group called The Renegade Cabaret apparently performed there regularly. (Yes, it’s illegal) “It’s sort of like the Bat signal- you never know when or where it will pop up.” (Yes, it still exists) A song of hope and healing, it’s unlike the writer’s usual raw material.
“Baby You Should Know It (Ben Tucker/Bob Dorough) is sheer bebop. Conklin’s rat-ta-tat-tat delivery is sassy and bright. Piano swivels and dips. At the bass, Waki is singing under his breath a la Jay Leonhart. They are in the groove.
Cole Porter’s “So in Love” is sultry, sophisticated rumba (on a polished floor.) Curtis Lewis’s “The Great City” arrives rhythmic, bouncy, hip. “Life is a cocktail,” the artist sings. For a moment, we believe.
My single caveat is the reading of lyrics.
Mezzrow, the more intimate “boîte” sister of Smalls, evokes a French jazz club from the 1950s, down stairs, no frills, music first.
Photos Alix Cohen
Mary Foster Conklin
John Di Martino- MD/Piano; Yoshi Waki- Bass
Mezzrow 163 West 10th Street
