When Vivian Sessoms erupts onto the stage with a robust, funky arrangement of  “Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby?” (Louis Jordan), my pen abandons words for exclamation points. In “Back to Black” (Amy Winehouse/Mark Ronson), her gutsy, hard-charging voice, colluding with one of the best horn sections I’ve heard, sends shivers up the spine: “You went back to what you knew/So far removed from all that we went through/And I tread a troubled track/My odds are stacked/I'll go back to black”. Sessoms dismantles the poor sod in the song.

“Tenderly” (Walter Gross/Jack Lawrence) and “Willow Weep for Me” (Ann Ronell) are well placed to shift set energy. Eyes closed, nose crinkled, the performer offers a jazzy rendition of the first, which sashays around its melody. Soulful piano and sax solos enhance the sway.

Tim Ries (sax), who also did the arrangement, moves as if puppeted by the heady music…like Keith Jarrett at his piano. During “Willow…,” Mark McGowan (trumpet) unleashes a terrific inner Gabriel, barely visibly filling his cheeks (with air). (It’s a wonder.) Sessoms can taffy-pull a consonant like Tina Turner or purposefully omit one like Dinah Washington. She has skill, range and, later, gives us a taste of excellent, fluid scat.

The opportunity to deliver intensity without speed and volume is unfortunately ignored. Clearly able to take it down, she inexplicably does not. Even after introducing Annie Lennox/David Stewart’s “Sweet Dreams” as “one more quiet song,” music and performance remain propulsive. Additionally, Sessoms appears unaware of the emotional impact of the lyrics, which are not communicated. Nor does she seem to attempt to connect with her audience. Walking to the edge of the stage or momentarily perching on a front table, the artist doesn’t glance at, let alone lock eyes with, a single patron. An unvarnished gaze that might clinch devotion is, alas, missing.

A rousing hot-damn-cry-out-clap-‘n’-stomp-let ’em-rip “Cherchez la Femme” (A. Darnell/ S.Browder, Jr. for Dr.Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band) provokes people at the back to wave arms or napkins; others infectiously sing—yes—they pipe up from the room. “It pays to have friends who sing.” Texturally dynamic—there’s that fabulous brass again—its primitive, processional rhythm sees Sessoms bump, shimmy and parade joyfully among the tables. A zesty version of “Love Has Fallen on Me” (Andrew Lloyd Webber/Charles Stepney) successfully utilizes more of her professional friends on back-up.

The set includes four meandering, free-form songs by Sessoms and her husband and musical arranger/bassist, Chris Parks. With the show running a lengthy 1 ¾ hours, three of these songs could’ve been omitted. Because of technical sound issues, I admit to not being able to hear most of these particular lyrics, which might’ve helped.

This is a formidably talented performer with a fierce band who might be better with some change of focus.

Alix Cohen
Cabaret Scenes
August 7, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org