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Everywhere you look, there seems to be one singer saluting another. For example, in November in NYC cabaret, you can see a superstar named Janis saluted and a Janice who is a current singer saluting another superstar. That would be Janis Joplin's blues and bravura via Gretchen Reinhagen at Don't Tell Mama -- and MetroStar finalist Janice Hall leaning on Marlene Dietrich's legend at Metropolitan Room, guided by Bistro Award-winning director Peter Napolitano.
You conveniently avoid the "Why don't we go see the real thing" option, if the stars are deceased or retired. Dietrich died at 90 in 1992, and Joplin was gone at just 27, in 1970.
Such tributes can be wise from a marketing standpoint -- they can draw in a nostalgia-primed audience familiar with, fond of, and missing the presence of the superstar, and the hit/trademark songs are known quantities. Of course, if the singers are similar types, the show can become channeling to cheer, or there's the fear so near but yet so far: paling in unavoidable comparison. The audience may come in humming, but who wants a ho-hum copycat walk down Memory Lane? That wasn't a concern with the recent tribute to Nat "King" Cole (1919-1965) seen at Birdland. The songstress stressing his strengths and legacy with great affection, was Natalie Douglas. Yes, if the subject and presenter being of different sexes, the slate is wiped cleaner and we don't go in expecting a conscious or unconscious attempt at imitation --- drag shows aside. Another upcoming November show of gender reassignment will be Jan Daley's tribute to Bob Hope, also at Metropolitan. In her case, she knew and worked with her subject. Natalie Douglas, in Nat Sings Nat, can't claim that advantage, but says thanks for the memory in her own way. She's a fan and has done her homework. She's also experienced with tribute shows, having done two notable ones in recent times which happened to salute women she admires, the more recently lost greats whose first names happen to rhyme, convenient when she decided to do a combo platter of both salutes for a concert. That would be Lena Horne and Nina Simone. Her show focusing on the latter was recorded live, also at Birdland, and released as her second CD. There was a full house for the show, and the dazzling Douglas has been presented many times at this venue, as presenter and lover of talent Jim Caruso pointed out in his affectionate introduction. The very successful and finely crafted, but relaxed, show was just the latest feather in the cap of the fine-feathered friend of audiences and reviewers alike, for this winner of the critics-voted Bistro and Nightlife Awards, plus half a dozen MAC Awards, voted by members of the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs, many of whom are singers and musicians themselves. She also won the Hanson Award from MAC back in 1996, and picked up more fans along the way while singing in piano bars. If you missed this one-night flight at Birdland, don't squawk about being a birdbrain, but you might want to make a point to see her the next time she sings like a bird. Natalie is the booked featured guest at Metropolitan Room's MetroJam open mic this Friday, November 5. She's also booked for three events in Greeenwich Village after that: on the bills at Red Hot & New: A Songwriters' and Singers' Soiree on November 11 at the restaurant Ido Sushi at 29 Seventh Avenue South, and at the Teddy Cares holiday-time fundraiser on December 5 at Judson Memorial Church. A yearly tradition of New Year's Eve shows at the Duplex, will continue to end this calendar year. She's likely to bring some of her formidable soul to Cole favorites for at least one of these events --- what's the Christmas season without at least one lump of Cole for your stocking?
The Birdland show was a welcome mix of songs plucked from the many, many Nat "King" Cole had tried on for size. Happily, it wasn't just an rehash of his biggest commercial hits, but included some classy standards he sang but aren't indelibly associated with only him. Though he died young, Cole came along at a time when popular singers of the day recorded much more frequently, and he got to sing other songs as a live nightclub entertainer and on radio and TV, including his own regular TV variety show. So, Natalie had piles of possible sheet music she could leaf through to make her selections. Many of the trademark N.K.C. numbers and pop hits are light with a low-key charm and don't make heavy dramatic demands in their lyrics. Wisely, Natalie breezed through a few of these early on, settling in, ingratiating herself with the audience before digging into more emotional material. And they dug Douglas's digging in. It's a strong suit. But she is also very game for having fun, with a wink and a few smiles for things like the happy and truly sweet "Sweet Lorraine," and a jazzily assertive "Straighten Up and Fly Right." Her voice sailed. Especially impressive was the way she found depth and avoided the stickiness in the big Cole commercial hit "Mona Lisa." Involved, thoughtful phrasing is one of the things that Miss Douglas rarely misses with, and she can find reality and complexities where others would only find surface. The wonder and awe and reverence she displays as she tenderly relishes and lingers over the words of "Unforgettable," is simply marvelous. This number, a giant ubiquitous hit for Cole in his lifetime and again in an posthumously electronically created duet with his singer daughter, with the same first name as Miss Douglas, lest we forget, is especially familiar, but sounds fresh and newly tender-ized here. "Somewhere Along the Way" avoided the way of soap opera self-pity or leaning on the prettiness of its melody to become wistful and bittersweet, even heartbreaking. She peppered the evening with a few historical tidbits and gushed with girlish glee in her unabashed fandom for her subject's "awesome" talents. Whereas others might have pushed emotional buttons more intensely to discuss the racial barriers of the times and those this black entertainer broke, or lament his early death and what might have been, Natalie stayed rather positive and not professorial in her perky patter. She was almost literally jumping up and down with glee a few times, her joy contagious. The audience was enthusiastically appreciative.
Of course, besides being female, the other difference with this Nat taking on the repertoire of that Nat, is that Nat "King" Cole also played piano for himself, and Natalie leaves the keyboard duties to her longtime and excellent musical director, Mark Hartman. With nods to some distinctive stylistic ways of the famous piano/bass/guitar Nat "King" Cole Trio, the accompaniment for the Birdland bash brought in bass and guitar with two in-demand top drawer jazz and cabaret standbys standing in: bassist Saadi Zain --- heard in many shows and every Wednesday at the Iguana's variety shows --- and superb guitarist Sean Harkness. Although I'm not fully convinced he hasn't actually been cloned, he seems to be everywhere --- in the band for musical theatre shows, his own solo or duo gigs, performing currently as the sole musician in Deb Berman's much-more-than-good All in Good Time and regularly on hand for the Little Big Band worth a rousing hand with Terese Genecco's super splashes at the Iridium. With arrangements that suited song and singer without shortchanging the legacy, the trio triumphed, too. Perhaps for a longer evening, they could include a few instrumentals to really bring in the significant part of Cole's pre-vocal star career; they certainly have no shortage of ability to be up for the task. With the wealth of material, it's surprising they resisted the temptation to kill several birds with one Birdland stone, and do a medley to encompass more titles. There are some fun songs that might not be the right choices for a four-minutel treatment, but might be a treat to re-heat for a chorus; likewise, there are some little-known novelty songs, products of their time, that might fit in that way, as well as some movie theme songs. Inevitably, this kind of show will always be a tip of the iceberg, but a tip of the hat to Nat and the heartfelt Hartman three-man band for what was put so well at the top of her iceberg in such a tip-top show. You can find some prime examples on Youtube.
More on Natalie at www.NatalieDouglas.com and see ww.Birdlandjazz.com for their November attractions which include Chita Rivera, Gavin Creel, Lucie Arnaz and Valarie Pettiford with the songs of Ron Abel & Chuck Steffan, and much more including the weekly open-mic you can't help but like-- Jim Caruso's Monday Cast Party, as well as the regular appearances of the the Kole with a K -- singer Hilary Kole with the Birdland band. And the Birdland burgers are pretty delicious, too, not made with actual birds, rest assured. It's good to live in New York.
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