Jazz singer Marcus Goldhaber joined forces with songwriter Marcus Goldhaber to deliver an early Valentine’s Day present of love songs to an appreciative audience that drank them in as if parched with thirst.

And well they should. The singer’s velvet-smooth voice, jazzy stylings and warm stage presence were the perfect complement for his literate, open-hearted lyrics and pleasing melodies as they celebrated love in all its glow and anticipation. While Goldhaber’s songs were very much in love with love—no cynical jibes, no guarded weariness, no bitter regrets here—they also steered clear of easy sentimentality or sappy gushiness in standouts like the bubbly “A Walk” and the playful “Let’s Be Foolish Together,” both disarming and tuneful.

Although he was somewhat tentative in his opening pair of numbers, admitting to the audience it was his first time performing all originals, Goldhaber hit his stride with the strutting “As Long As I Am Falling in Love.” The evening’s topper proved to be “I Wanna Know,” in which Goldhaber explored the darker side for once, with his obsessive lover’s lament building to a naggingly repeated “I wanna know” that captured the desperate fears and doubts consuming him.

Goldhaber as a performer has an easy way with a song, thanks to his strong vocal skills and engaging personality. His songs deftly echo the spirit and tunefulness of the Great American Songbook, but they tend to blur together in memory, lacking sharp individuality and poetic density to set them apart from one another. Still, as a first full-time venture as a singer-songwriter, Goldhaber proved he has the chops to deliver an audience-pleasing evening that cast a pleasurable glow over his listeners. With time, his songs are bound to deepen thematically, offering the promise of future evenings that are as emotionally challenging as they are musically rewarding.

Bob Barnett
Cabaret Scenes
January 26, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org