As part of his monthly performances at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, Scot Albertson celebrated the release of With Every Note, A Step..., his fourth CD in five years, at his annual pre-New Year’s show on December 30th. Albertson always gathers top jazz musicians for his acts and this evening featured his music director, Daryl Kojak, on piano, Cameron Brown on bass, "Sweet" Sue Terry on alto sax and flute, Tony Jefferson on drums, and Dave Pietro on alto and tenor saxes and flute. Most of the songs in the act are featured in the new CD.

Albertson, who has a strong romantic baritone, erupted on stage with a briskly bouncy "Love Is Waiting" (Al Jarreau-Tom Canning & Jay Graydon) which led into a melodic "On a Clear Day" (Lerner-Lane). Without a narrative break, Albertson, with only Kojak’s piano accompaniment, sang only the bridge to "The Song Is You" (Kern-Hammerstein II) before bursting into Bobby Darin’s "As Long As I’m Singing" with the big jazz band sound. Both of these selections are on the new CD. Albertson then stated what he believes are the most important things in life: "Love, faith, trust and an open heart."

Albertson projected his romantic leading man image when he crooned a song not on the new CD, "Incurably Romantic" (Cahn-Van Heusen) from the film Let’s Make Love. It was followed by "I Hear Music" (Loesser-Lane).

The evening was Albertson’s 16th monthly performance at the Laurie Beechman. Discussing the new cook there, he honored her with the country western novelty, "Pass the Biscuits, Mirandy" (Del Porter & Carl Hoefle) with fun flute support from both Terry and Pietro.

An unusual medley in the act was the verse to Noel Coward’s "Sail Away," sung a capella, then seamlessly flowing into a delicate "No Other Love" from Me and Juliet (Rodgers & Hammerstein) on which he modulated his voice to find a gentler, more tender meaning of the lyrics of this beautiful song. It is in the performance of ballads like this that Albertson reminds one of Vaughn Monroe and Dick Haymes. The full band did a great swing arrangement of "Orchids In the Moonlight" (Youmans-Kahn-Eliscu) before he came in strongly on his vocal part and tore the roof off the room.

A new song was the inspirational "I Believe in This Man" by Karen Jacobsen which includes the line "joy is replacing my fear" and:

"I believe in this man
I believe in this love
In the beauty of his spirit
And the strength of his word
I believe in this chance
And I’m willing to take it as far as we can
I believe in this man..."

He crooned this song against Kojak’s superbly simple arrangement and the last line of the song was effectively whispered.

Bringing up Jerry Scott as his special guest, Albertson introduced a "gift" that Jerry had given him. It was "Memories of You" (Blake-Razaf) and Albertson performed it by singing the rarely-sung verse. Jerry flawlessly played the familiar melody as if it were a great classical piece, especially during the vocal break, and the harmonic interplay between them made for a thrilling presentation.

As a change of pace, Albertson went back to the country western songbook and rocked with the band on the old chestnut "Put Your Shoes On Lucy" (Hank Fort). Celebrating the new year, Albertson led the crowd in "Auld Lang Syne" as the audience put on hats and blew their paper horns. This was followed by a beautiful "I’ll Be Seeing You" (Fain-Kahal) which began with only Kojak’s piano, soon joined by Terry and Pietro’s flutes, and subtle rhythm support by Brown on bass and Jefferson on drums. Albertson then sent out his advice for the New Year with "Part of the Plan", a buoyant song by Dan Fogelberg:

"Love when you can,
Cry when you have to,
Be who you must,,
That’s a part of the plan."

The show wasn’t over. Toasting a newlywed pair, Albertson sang a rare beauty, "Be Warmer This Winter" by Stan Freeman and Franklin Underwood:

"An eager heart can cast a warming glow
So be my all
All through the season
Each lovely reason
My heart will sing.
Be warmer this winter,
Be with me this winter
And make our love forever spring"

The last encore was one of Albertson’s signature songs, "Love Walked In" which gave every member of the band great solos. Each new show finds him more relaxed and this night he was having a ball with the musicians and the feeling was infectious for everyone. What a wonderful way to end a rather dreary season!

Scot Albertson performs every Wednesday night at La Mediteranée with Jerry Scott, 10 PM - 1 AM and will be appearing at the Kitano in New York on Wednesday, June 17th.

Joe Regan, Jr.
Cabaret Scenes
December 30, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org