“How did I get Billy to work with me? It was all Barry Day’s idea while we were having lunch eating hoagies! I figured Billy’s good with harmonies and at the keyboard,” chirps Ethel Merman-ette Klea Blackhurst! And so was born a new musical duo: pop-jazz crooner Billy Stritch and sassy-brassy Klea Blackhurst. At first glance and listen, there seems an uncertainty as to whether Mel Torme and Ethel Merman could make it together as a vocal team. Well, hold on to your hoagies because not only do the harmonies swing but the chemistry explodes!

Carmichael’s Great American Songbook is interpreted with liveliness and intelligence featuring a wide array of songs including his early works like “Riverboat Shuffle” (1924) with Klea singing trumpet scat, and Hoagy’s hokie “Lazy River” (1931) with Klea strumming her ukulele adding interpretive wa-wa’s. Many of Carmichael’s songs were written with Johnny Mercer lyrics, like bossa nova duet  “How Little We Know” and all-time favorite “Skylark,” affording Blackhurst the chance for the soft and mellow treatment it deserves.

Hoagy Carmichael was a dapper, charismatic character who appeared in many films: Jingles in Timber Jack; Smoke in Young Man With A Horn and best known as Cricket in To Have and Have Not with Lauren Bacall. Stories about his life abound as Klea offers up most of the dialogue to Billy’s piano and vocals. “Georgia On My Mind” provides smooth sounding Stritch the opportunity to pour out the blues on this romantic tune, including some well-placed chord changes, and feature the Hoosier’s shining star “Star Dust."

Powerhouse Blackhurst is in fine form on “Ain’t There Anyone Here For Love” (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, film, Jane Russell). Oscar Award-winning film Here Comes The Groom (1951, Bing Crosby & Jane Wyman), provided a harmonic opportunity for “In The Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening” and Carmichael/Loesser’s “Two Sleepy People” (Bob Hope & Shirley Ross Thanks for the Memory-1939) affords a swingin’ good time with many lyrical adventures.

Blackhurst is a passionate singer, always on target; Stritch an icon in the Broadway-Cabaret arena possessing "dreamy" vocal quality and superior arranging technique. Together they don’t have to dream of a song because they make it a reality in this treasure-trove of Hoagy Carmichael tunes. Steve Doyle is on bass and Dave Meade on drums. The show plays at the Metropolitan Room, October 14 – 17 an dNovember 19-21.

Sandi Durell
Cabaret Scenes
October 14, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org