Beginning a 6-show series at the Rrazz Room with a birthday celebration, Linda Kosut displayed the wide diversity of styles she’s become known for — from Bob Dylan folk, Peggy Lee swing to Thelonious Monk’s experimental jazz. Surrounding herself with superior backup musicians, Kosut delivers her material with assured delight in a husky alto combined with a flair for augmenting the theatricality of each number.

Tom Paxton’s beautifully crafted folk tune “Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound” displayed Linda’s penchant for a fine lyric. Dave Barbour and Peggy Lee’s 1947 hit “Everything’s Movin’ Too Fast” swings with a great sax solo by Bay Area horn legend Tony Malfatti. Switching to smooth jazz, Kosut comfortably elicits the sensuousness from the popular Michael Brandeburg single, “Where Do We Go from Here.” Kosut won a BMI Award for Outstanding Recording for her work on Oscar Brown Jr.’s. material. Here she shines during his moving poem “This Beach,” allowing the band to sizzle on Thelonious Monk’s jazz standard “‘Round Midnight.”

After some comic relief by special guest artist drag chanteuse Arnaldo, Kosut performed a smart intermixing of Irving Berlin’s popular 1921 standard “All By Myself” with Eric Carmen’s 1975 power ballad by the same title. What could have been bombastic and over the top is treated intelligently and stylishly in Kosut’s hands. It was a birthday celebration and Linda closed with John Ondrasik’s hymn to aging gracefully, “100 Years.” At 64, Kosut is still breaking new ground and improving like a fine wine.

Steve Murray
Cabaret Scenes
March 22, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org