THE NONPAREIL NONAGENARIAN
REMAINS A NON-STOP WHIRLWIND OF TALENT
There’s a problem with singer Marilyn Maye’s appearances. And it’s this: For reviewers, all the positive adjectives have been used up, repeated, and now seem inadequate. The one in the alliterative title of her first RCA album in the 1960s—Meet Marvelous Marilyn Maye—stuck and still applies. Perhaps the dilemma can be approached by tweaking familiar words of praise for extra juice: could “triumphant” could become “Tri-oomph!-ant”? In desperation, one might coin a new word, saying the cheerful, shining performer is worth a big cheer—she’s “hip-hip-hoo-raydiant!”
Marilyn Maye
There are no fresh choices re-Maye-ning in the thesaurus, so suffice to say that we should just give up and change the lady’s first name to Miracle and celebrate the ever-impressive M.M. who is again celebrating an April birthday (her 97th this time) with performances at 54 Below through April 19, except for the 14th and 15th. And she’s also celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of the man who had her as a guest on his TV show 76 times: Johnny Carson. The evening begins with a clip of one of those appearances on The Tonight Show when she sang Kander & Ebb’s now-classic “Cabaret.” And she ends her set reprising it live, sounding vital and vivacious (or, in that questionable quest for combining words to describe her—“vitalacious.” (She was the first to record a cover of that show tune and several others.) Her own words of admiration are reserved for the television host and the program contained many of the numbers she sang on that program, resulting in a set list that is markedly different from the usual suspects she mostly has favored in her appearances in the last few years.
Marilyn Maye
Included is Carson’s favorite standard, “Here’s That Rainy Day.” It’s one of several numbers on the sad side, not the mood most prominently paraded in her usual concerts. But here we are in a rainy New York and here’s that “rainy” Maye from the typically sunny Marilyn. She also has her own way with “The Way We Were,” sidestepping the sorrow in its line “What’s too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget,” revising it to refer to a fond memory that she “never will forget.”
Tom Hubbard (bass), Marilyn Maye, Mark McLean (drums)
Mark McLean
Memories do light the corners of her mind, although at times her memory for what the next selection is needed a reminder. A few instrumental notes of a phrase cued her in and it became a cute game of “Name That Tune” and she’s raring to go. No big deal. On opening night, she related how her televised performance of the assertive “I Will Survive” helped her survive the end of a relationship, advising the person in question to tune in and take note of the attitude and lyric that basically bids bye-bye and good riddance. Keeping to the agenda of a short shelf life for gloom and glumness, she segues from the downbeat “By Myself” to the eventual hope for rewarding connection in “Being Alive.” One thing that’s constant, even in the changed repertoire, is the fondness for medleys. And, as per usual, the material is treated with jazz touches, taking liberty with notes as she stretches or bends some of them, playing with rhythm and tempo. Not that the champ needs to prove anything, but she’ll end a selection with a big, sustained, belted note when she chooses. The music is a playground and the fellow players are the guys in her ace trio—also the well-traveled terrific usual suspects: bassist Tom Hubbard, drummer Mark McLean, and at the keyboard, music director Tedd Firth.
Ted Firth (piano), Marilyn Maye
Marilyn Maye
The only unconvincing moment was, maybe, this time when she sang “Maybe This Time” and got to the line “Everybody loves a winner, so nobody loved me.” She’s definitely a winner and everybody seems to love her, even if reviewers can’t find new words to describe her life-affirming joy and skill. Another “as per usual” element of a Marilyn Maye event is a packed audience that responds with more enthusiasm. If we must find a new word for that same old reaction for this merry Miracle on 54th Street, let’s combine “extra” and “ecstatic” to say “extratic.”
Marilyn Maye
More info at www.marilynmaye.com In May, Miss Maye finds her way to enjoy spring in Palm Springs, undoubtedly holding the audience in the palm of her hands there, too, when she plays The Purple Room.
photos by Conor Weiss
