Jazz singer Carol Fredette’s launch of her new CD, Everything in Time at the vocalist-friendly Iridium was a festive occasion, brimming over with an excited audience there to revel in Carol’s performance.  One of the most often asked questions of the evening by the greedy fans was “why she doesn’t perform more, and what we can do about it?”

Carol, who started performing so young that she still is quite youthful, sporting a svelte, gamine appearance and a hip rap, has the look and persona of a Merv Griffin guest in the early 1970s.

It was clear that Ms. Fredette didn’t want anyone to suffer boredom for even one second as each one of her selections was a bona fide “oh, I love that song” sort of tune.  The opening song, “Pieces of Dreams,” was the type of showstopper that one might expect at the end of a set, but it didn’t matter because following with tunes like Jobims’ “Dream” — in a thrilling arrangement — and the mystical “I Was Born in Love With You,” kept the ante high.

Much of her show was of a Latin bent, but all was not Jobim as Ms. Fredette chose Ivan Lins’ Leonard Cohen-ish (the seminal Canadian Folk genius) “Ticket.”  The audience roared to the hilariously unlikely song “O Pato,” celebrating waterfowl that get so caught up doing the Samba that they almost drown in their frenzy!  A Latin “Disco Duck,” if one could imagine such a thing.

The 85-year old jazz composer Bob Dourough was in the audience, as well as some other old time “insiders.”  Fredette honored Dourough with her rendition of his contemporary jazz favorite “Devil May Care,” burning up the house with her kick butt band consisting of Helio Alves on piano, David Finck, bass, Kevin Winard, drums, Barry Danielian, trumpet, Bob Malach, tenor, and Roger Squitero on percussion.

Fredette’s voice, while unique, is sometimes reminiscent of the late Susannah McCorkle in pitch and its slight vibrato.  It is a smoky, lived-in sound that surprises sometimes with laser-like top notes and on occasion even a soft, higher purr.

I left the show thinking that jazz and cabaret are often musical first cousins if not siblings. Carol’s patter has the revelatory quality of many cabaret pros and her tunes were as melodic as can be with the extra spice of jazz sizzle. Good is good, and in the sea of generic mediocrity I am glad to “face the music” of any genre or style as long as it is nourishing.

Melody Breyer-Grell
Cabaret Scenes
February 4, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org