At one point during this concert, several audience members shouted, “We love you, Barbara.” Cook responded, “Well, Hon, I want to tell you I love you and I love doing this.”  Even without overtly saying that, Cook seemed to be displaying a newfound energy, openness and embrace of the audience in her work.

The signature greatness was, of course, on display.  There were her crystalline tones on “It Might As Well Be Spring,” her soprano swing on “Nashville Nightingale,” and her clarity of storytelling in “I Got Lost in His Arms.”

But much of her work had a new edginess to it, supported by newly assertive arrangements by Lee Musiker.  A pairing of “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter” and “I Wish I Could Forget You” had a stalker-ish quality to them. And she even allowed herself to sound un-pretty to thrilling effect on numbers such as “I Had Myself a True Love.”

After singing “A Wonderful Guy” and noting that the song was sixty years old, Cook observed, “The good things hold up.”  Or in her case, get even better as the years go on.

Michael Miyazaki
Cabaret Scenes
February 28, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org