Stormy Weather:
The Life of Lena Horne
Blues Alley
Washington, DC
Gavin offered a more complex, nuanced portrait of Horne than the hagiography that evenings like this usually attempt. “I never had the chance to enjoy this damned thing. It was always a struggle, a fight,” he quoted Horne saying, and through the evening he presented her struggles with family, career, activism, and her own legacy.
Although singing songs notably performed by Horne, neither vocalist, Paula West and Rebecca Parris, made an attempt to imitate her vocal style or present Horne’s arrangements of the songs. Notable musical highlights of the evening included an intense reading of “Why Was I Born?” and a sassier-than-thou performance of “A Lady Must Live” by West. Rebecca Parris was charming on “Honeysuckle Rose” and summed up a lifetime of self-awareness in “Yesterday When I Was Young.” The vocalists were superbly accompanied by George Mesterhazy on piano and Amy Shook on bass.
Ultimately, the evening provided an appreciation for Horne as a person and performer as well as an appreciation for the tremendous gifts of Gavin and his assembled performers.
Michael Miyazaki
Cabaret Scenes
March 5, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org