It was Dolores Scozzesi’s birthday, but it was her audience that got the gift. Scozzesi is a passionate singer who invests each song with all of her energy and all of her soul.  When she is on stage, it is clear she is enjoying herself — dancing around as she sings or standing still during instrumental breaks, simply wallowing in the pleasure of the music surrounding her.

She is first and foremost a jazz singer, as she demonstrated in a 90-minute set that featured her deep, seductive, honey-tinged voice in a series of outstanding arrangements.  Providing strong backing that allowed her to soar was an amazing quartet of musicians — none more amazing than Nolan Shaheed, whose trumpet amped up the emotions behind most of Scozzesi’s powerful vocals and occasionally threatened to steal focus from her. The other musicians, each of whom had strong individual moments, were Peter Smith on piano, Ryan McGillicuddy on bass and Zach Harmon on drums.

Scozzesi opened the show with Randy Newman’s ”You Can Leave Your Hat On,” offering a saucy vocal that made the amusing lyrics even more suggestive. One of the crowd’s clear favorites during the show was Scozzesi’s version of “Love, Look Away” (Rodgers and Hammerstein, from Flower Drum Song), in which she let her voice climb and then drop in a fascinating performance while communicating the passion of the lyrics.  The song featured strong piano support.

Other highlights included: “Listen Love” (Jon Lucien), sung in a smooth, easy-going style that picked up momentum as it progressed; “Fine and Mellow” (Billie Holiday), a down-and-dirty blues number that allowed Scozzesi to show off her sassy side; and “You Don’t Know What Love Is” (Gene de Paul/Don Raye), featuring a breathy, sensual vocal with a strong bass solo.

She talked about her youth as a “high-fashion girl,” which kept her from attending Woodstock in 1969, much to her subsequent regret.  To assuage some of those feelings, she sang Joni Mitchell’s moody “Woodstock,” with musical backing that had a bit of a psychedelic tone to it.

Among more traditional selections in the show was a surprising, delightful version of Cole Porter’s “Night and Day,” in which Scozzesi ran very rapidly through the lyrics of the entire song before slowing the pace, plus “I’ll Be Seeing You” (Sammy Fain/Irving Kahal), featuring a unique introduction that didn’t give a clue to what the song was until she began singing the always-welcome melody.

Elliot Zwiebach
Cabaret Scenes
August 13, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org