This entrancing, brand new collection from the fabulous Barb Jungr is subtitled “the new American songbook,” and functions on two levels. The first, as a record of her triumphant debut last year at New York’s posh Cafe Carlyle Supper Club, and secondly, as a valentine to some of the songwriters responsible for these "new classics" of our time. They include absolute gems from the likes of David Byrne, Neil Diamond, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Springsteen, Todd Rundgren, David Gates, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Jimmy Webb, among others. As is her tradition, Ms. Jungr deconstucts each of these selections and tailors them to her singular,extraordinary style.

Try as we might to cover our friend Tommy Femia in his new theatre venture, Norma Doesmen, our reviewer was blocked at the door by wild-eyed, writer/director Stephen Stahl. The very professional and surprised publicist tried to reason with Mr. Stahl, but to no avail, and our writer had his tickets taken away and was asked to leave the Abingdon Theatre, or risk being thrown out. Needless to say, he left. Since we cannot review the show without having seen it, we thought we would share some reviews - well, actually the only two that came up on Google - so that you might appreciate the event we missed.

I must reveal, the first few tracks did not thrill me. Nothing wrong with them, they just seemed pedestrian, but suddenly Ms. Brown launched into an infectious arrangement of the oh-so-famous Charlie Chaplin composition “Smile,” and her joyous rendition of this classic song, set to a rousing samba, grabbed and held my attention!  In case you don’t know, Ms. Brown was the original Mary Poppins, in its Broadway incarncation, and this album is a testament to how she landed this prestigious engagement. I would have preferred she had opened the disc with one of the uptempo selections (“Saturday Night Is The Lonliest Night Of The Week” or “Let’s Fall In Love”),

The Village Vanguard is celebrating its 75^th Anniversary this month, February of 2010, and Lorraine Gordon is still at the helm! This week she brought in a talented, award-winning group of young musicians to perform at the renowned jazz club, the Gerald Clayton Trio. Gerald Clayton (best known for playing with Roy Hargrove) was on piano, Joe Sanders - bass, and Justin Brown was the drummer.