Terese Genecco--- At The Iridium - Tue. Nov. 25

The snow belt and the monsoon belt are nothing compared to the Genecco belt.

When that big voice gets going and is in the zone, it ain’t the temperate zone.

This super high-energy performing as strong as the force of a Level 3 hurricane has blown into town to blow the roof off the Iridium.

As she had some work experience in the insurance business in her past, she’s probably wisely advised the club how to collect any damages from such roof impact.

Her own insurance that audiences will have a good time is:

1. She’s employed a seven-piece band for Tuesday’s gig.

2. She’s culled favorites from her past few shows

3. She has the drive and the stamina to be that force of nature and wail like a whale of a gale and has instrumentalists with plenty of wind and brass to match what she’s got.

4. She knows how to please an audience, just like your mom or dad or knows how to cook your favorite Thanksgiving meal items just right.She’s a tasty dish herself and can dish delish, too.

The event is part of a weekly series at the jazz club, put together by Scott Barbarino who has had an ongoing history with the venue and its upstairs cousin, Ellen’s Stardust Diner with its singing wait staff. This weekly wham-slam-hot damn features bands with singers---sometimes a big band, sometimes a little band, and in the case of the Genecco jump, jive and wail and sail, it’s what she calls her “little big band.” Last week’s show was Broadway singers doing Broadway songs in a jazz style (that concept will be spun out again come January). Terese was in the audience for that show, which began with “Put On a Happy Face.” She did. Prior to that, she was a guest in a show at the club that was part of the Tuesday series that fell on the Tuesday of Election Night with the Obama drama. That was hosted with panache and political push by Shaynee Rainbolt --- and now Shaynee appears as a guest in Terese’s show. One good turn deserves another and the two turn up in each other’s shows and lives. November 25’s show at The Iridium – make that plural---shows--- because the 8:30 and 10:30 sets will be completely different from each other--- should surely be a sure bet. When first seen in New York, I was floored by this talent whose style and repertoire are a joyful throwback to the boisterous but very musically savvy best of the great nightclub acts. Her reference points and main points of departure (or not so much departure, but stickin’ around) are Frances Faye (whose work she tributed to great acclaim) and Keely Smith and Louis Prima and Sammy Davis, Jr. Color her Vegas vibrant violet.

My first exposure to Terese actually was at The Iridium during one of their brunches where Barry Levitt was usually the house pianist. Terese often works with another Barry--- Barry Lloyd, who is based in San Francisco, as she is… (or has been; there are rumblings that the only earthquake San Francisco likes is planning a move and seismic shift to be mostly in New York City in 2009). Maestro Levitt returns to please at the keys tomorrow to lead this seven-piece band. “Barry Levitt at the piano is a blast,” Terese feels (he was there on Election Night, too, as America found its new leader and Terese and Shaynee led us straight ahead into the new era with some straight-ahead jazz and just plain good music. Well, not so plain, really—the arrangements are detailed and dynamic. Using the standard “Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home” as an example, she points out that her arrangement done with a band “has a combination of all the elements of a vocalist and band. There are dramatic differences. There’s the rhythm section, there’s a blues, it slowly builds, adds the band element, then backs off again, then the horn section is wailing. It’s a really dense arrangement.” And you’d have to be dense to not see and feel the excitement when hearing this arrangement live, cooking more than the best Thanksgiving dinner being prepared two days earlier this week. She had a large group for her recent, packed gig at The Metropolitan Room where she simply a sensation and she topped herself. (The Metropolitan is also the place where she recorded her Frances Faye-focused Drunk With Love, the tribute to gay Faye heyday. The CD won the MAC Award as outstanding album of the year.) 

 “I’m exited,” Terese told me, sounding very excited indeed, in a late night talk this week. “I have not been able to perform a lot of the Frances Faye things in quite a while.” Given the opportunity to pull from three different acts, including a sequel of sorts to the first, she’s mixing and matching and selecting things from her large musical salad bar. “It’s going to be fun to mix it.” Ever since she first got Drunk (so to speak), she has been almost addicted – happily – to what a good-sized band can do and how audiences respond and are energized in a way that makes the claims of Red Bull seem like bull. Terese, looking and sounding happy as a clam whose life is going swimmingly. She fell in love in recent times: “I fell in love with a seven-piece band. I’m committed to the sound of the 1950s Las Vegas style---not only is it invigorating for me as the singer and bandleader, it has been thrilling for audiences to hear a horn section ‘live.’ And those bongos!! These arrangements are meant to be performed.” She mentioned a Sammy Davis, Jr. live recording as having ideas to work from and be inspired by. Now that’s good aural company to have. Talk about drumming up electricity! She wants her show to be “the best of all aspects of night club entertainment.”

Turning to the oncoming Thanksgiving holiday, I asked her the inevitable trite question: what are you grateful for? With gratitude beaming rather than ego screaming, she focused on her good year now winding down, having a career high and high gear performances and audience reactions. Now having done many performances at the Rrazz Room (she returns December 13) and other San Francisco spots, plus NYC, etc., she’s not just preaching to the choir or singing back to them). Her audiences have many ‘strangers” in them. “People walk in --- old and young --- without knowing her work ahead of time. “Everybody has a blast,” says the genial, jolly, joyous Genecco. “ The audience has a great time. Live energy!!” she calls out as loud, blessed, magic words. That energy and joy she and her band send out are contagious, but the Red Cross need not dispatch its experts.

 “I’m grateful for all the people who have believed in me since I won the San Francisco cabaret award five years ago. She also reports that she’s grateful and happy to be, for the first time, in New York on Thanksgiving Day. She has perhaps inflated hopes of seeing one of her heroes at Thanksgiving time--- yes, she heard that one of her childhood faves will be appearing in the famous parade: it’s Underdog, a cartoon she loves. Cute comedy. The straighter numbers let you interpret lyrics and back into show tune gear. For my friends still in town Tuesday, I’d encourage you to drop everything they’re doing (except maybe that heavy turkey) and head over for the early or late set. It’s just one night, so the wow has gotta be now… for now.

  More info at www.iridiumjazz.com for details on this and other events at the venue—upcoming Tuesday travelers include favorites Spider Saloff and Judy Barnett. Artist website: www.teresegenecco.com -- TERESE GENECCO RETURNS TO THE RRAZZ ROOM IN DECEMBER.