You probably did not attend the opening of a Broadway revue called Garrick Gaieties, since this year of 2025 marks the 100th anniversary of that show. It presented the first Broadway production for which a certain pair of talented songwriters had contributed the full score. They’d go on to much success, creating many standards that continue to be performed and recorded. On April 6, a sampling of some of the best and best-known creations by the collaborators—composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart—were sung by three vocalists at the latest edition of the series called Songbook Sundays at Dizzy’s in the Jazz At Lincoln Center building. The set also included a spiffy instrumental version of “Have You Met Miss Jones?”

Speaking of which, have you met Miss Winer? She’s Deborah Grace Winer, the bright-spirited host and curator, armed with a collection of facts and perspectives. She’s been presenting shows featuring the catalogues of the major writers of the Great American Songbook immortal classics of the 20th century in various locations for years—at this venue since 2022, several programs per year. Deciding to stick to sturdy standards by the most famous and prolific tunesmiths, and thus having already gotten to all the giants, recent doings at Dizzy’s serve up surveys of their work again. A couple of their biggest successes (“we can’t leave this one out’) may make the set list again. And some of the same talented participants from one show are showing up in another, ready to be welcomed back by loyal audience members (and reviewers!).

Regulars know what what to expect: While this jazz-leaning enterprise in an institution dedicated to jazz will typically have one vocalist who’s not known as a jazz artist approaching the melody and lyric in a straightforward, non-embellished manner, the musicians and other singers take liberties in expanding, re-shaping, improvising, decorating, and otherwise personalizing the material in ways that would make purists pout and musical conservatives cavil. Such approaches, including scat-singing, are part of the often pleasing plan here, but the musical adjustments furthest off the beaten path may be difficult for some to follow (or swallow). So, in the Songbook Sundays set list for Rodgers & Hart, it isn’t only because it’s one of their lesser-known numbers that we don’t get their 1939 song expressing the jazz-resistant sentiment that’s titled “I Like to Recognize the Tune.”

Pianist/ music director Ted Rosenthal led the band that included Noriko Ueda on bass, Tim Horner on drums, and Summer Camargo (with some prominently shining solos) on trumpet.

Nikki Renée Daniels got perhaps the most obvious song choice in the Rodgers & Hart warhorses, “My Funny Valentine,” including the introductory verse (“Behold the way our fine-feathered friend…”), and as well as “This Can’t Be Love,” filled with Hart’s trademark lyrics that poke fun at the image of romantic relationships bringing only bliss (deciding that due to the lack of lovesick symptoms (“so sobs, no sorrows, no sighs…no dizzy spells…my heart does not stand still”). Balancing exactly that image was “My Heart Stood Still,” the more sincere other side of the coin was presented by Charles Turner who turned in some smooth vocalizing, with very pretty high notes. Debby Boone’s solos were the least jazzy and rather mild; her lower-energy renditions didn’t show off the versatility and verve evidenced in other chapters from The Great American Songbook that she has opened up to. However, even in low gear (a slow, mournful “It Never Entered My Mind”), it’s nice to hear her lovely timbre. As is custom in these programs, all the singers and band joined forces for a finale, fairly informal, sharing the number that put Rodgers & Hart on the map, written a few years before the aforementioned Garrick Gaieties, but featured therein: “Manhattan,” an ode to the wonders of that borough and the others that make up the city where, once again, it was performed on its home turf with smiles.

PERFORMANCE LINEUP

Ted Rosenthal, music director/piano
Deborah Grace Winer, curator/host
Debby Boone, vocals
Charles Turner, vocals
Nikki-Renée Daniels, vocals
Summer Camargo, trumpet
Noriko Ueda, bass
Tim Horner, drums

The next presentation in the series is in a jazz-filled June at Jazz at Lincoln Center and turns the spotlight on songs connected to Duke Ellington as well as those associated with Fats Waller. Visit JAZZ