The Mississippi River is certainly an amazing force of nature, and so is Frenchie Davis—a powerful, exciting singer with a set of pipes that can make the earth shake and who elevates the presentation of every song she sings.

In a show saluting three artists who grew up in different cities along the Mississippi, Ty Taylor danced his way around the stage in a tribute to Elvis Presley and Von Smith strutted during his segment on Prince, while Davis simply stood at the microphone and effortlessly—and magnificently—sang songs associated with Louis Armstrong.

While some might question the song selection in the Armstrong portion of the show—“Dream a Little Dream of Me” (Gus Kahn/Fabian Andre/Wilbur Schwandt) and “I Say a Little Prayer” (Burt Bacharach/Hal David) do not spring to mind when one thinks of Armstrong or his music—few could question the vocal power Davis brought to the set.  In her hands, “Ain’t Misbehavin’” soared and “Hello, Dolly!” scored—the latter ably backed by Dave Bass on soprano sax.  Rather than mimic Armstrong’s arrangement on the always sublime “What a Wonderful World” (Bob Thiele/George David Weiss), Davis opted to make the song her own, and it worked—with strong support again from Bass, this time on saxophone and flute.

Ending the salute to Armstrong without any transition or explanation, Davis offered “I Am Changing” (Henry Krieger/Tom Eyen) from Dreamgirls, in which she demonstrated her strong, powerful range, easily dealing with the swooping key changes that give the song its dramatic heft. However, aside from a few mumbled comments before some songs, Davis failed to make any direct connection with the audience. That could not be said of either Taylor or Smith, both of whom connected directly and effectively with the audience during their sets.

When Taylor sang a superb “Love Me Tender” (George Poulton/Vera Matson/Ken Darby), he stepped off the stage and walked through the audience, bringing the emotion right to his listeners. Gushing with enthusiasm and energy, he showed off his deep, solid voice and strong stage personality in excellent renditions of “Jailhouse Rock” (Mike Stoller/Jerry Leiber), “Heartbreak Hotel” (Tommy Durden/Mae Boren Axton), with a strong bass solo by Carter Wallace, and a very forceful “Suspicious Minds” (Mark James), ably abetted by vocal backup from pianist and Musical Director Todd Schroeder as well as Smith, plus a strong drum solo by Matt Lucich.

During the salute to Prince—featuring songs written by the artist himself — Von Smith used his falsetto effectively on “Kiss,” then switched to a more natural voice on “Red Corvette.”  He projected a soft, mellow sound on the evocative “When Doves Cry” and offered a nicely nuanced performance of “Purple Rain,” which included effective solos by Lucich on drums, Bass on sax and Aron Forbes on guitar.

Smith concluded his set with a non-Prince song—“Nature Boy” (Eden Ahbez), which he sang sweetly and straight forwardly, without any vocal tricks, sitting on the lip of the stage, with just a simple piano accompaniment.

Among the three performers, Taylor was the only one to speak about the artist he was saluting in personal terms.  In fact, when he ended his set with his own composition, a lovely ballad entitled “One More Last Goodbye,” he mentioned that it was a song influenced by Presley.

However, neither Smith nor Davis made any attempt to relate their own experiences to either Prince or Armstrong, respectively, during their salutes, nor did either one explain why they were concluding their segment with songs not associated with these performers.

As a result, The Mighty Mississippi — one of several entries in the American Icon series presented by Upright Cabaret — lacked thematic cohesion, as did an earlier version last spring.  Regardless of the entertainment value — and this show certainly did not lack that — a show with a thematic through-line should reflect that line throughout the presentation to justify the song selection.

Elliot Zwiebach
Cabaret Scenes
January 15, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org