Billy Stritch has his standards and they are high. He’ll start a song like the George & Ira Gershwin/BUddy DeSylva “(I’ll Build a) Stairway to Paradise” with a gentle swing, build it up, change accents, and wrap it up with an exuberant finale. The show is on its way.

After critical acclaim for his latest solo CD, Billy Stritch Sings the Mel Tormé Songbook, which he’s performed at various venues, Stritch brought a songbook of pre- and post-1950s standards to Broadway at Birdland for one night only. With minimum patter, they were simply good songs performed with his sophisticated touch and sound. Rodgers and Hart’s “Mountain Greenery,” a piano/scat marathon at high speed, has become Stritch’s signature tune. He interpreted “Nice ’n’ Easy” (Spence & the Bergmans) with a full and vigorous energy -- and let’s not forget an audience favorite, “Teach Me Tonight” by Sammy Cahn and Gene De Paul that was down and dirty with its determined chords. Also included was a beautiful ballad, Arthur Hamilton’s “Rain Sometimes,” a love song for grown-ups, with David Finck’s bass including snatches of “This Will Make You Laugh,” giving the song a pinch of adult whimsy.

Accompanied by Finck on bass and Dave Ratajczal on drums, Stritch set a Brazilian beat behind Irving Berlin’s “Let’s Face the Music and Dance,” a song that sounds more contemporary each day. Cole Porter’s “Night and Day” was intriguingly paired with Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “One Note Samba,” the dissimilar rhythms surprisingly comfortable, weaving in and out from one to the other. “Give Me the Simple Life” (Harry Ruby and Rube Bloom) teamed up in a complex arrangement with Vincent Youmans and Irving Caesar’s “Tea for Two,” turning out not so simple at all.

Ending his show was a moving rendition of “It Amazes Me,” Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh’s song that is getting more and more attention, and for good reason. Like his song selections, Billy Stritch can be counted as a pretty classy piano standard himself.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
May 3, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org