Daryl Sherman’s easy, open voice slip-slides into “Rockin’ Chair” (Hoagy Carmichael) as if they were old friends. Mildred Bailey, she explains, put this song on the map. Bailey was the first “girl singer with the band,” the first to be broadcast, the first to have her own radio show. With a confident piano hand and vocal choices reminiscent of Blossom Dearie, Sherman gently swings Johnny Mercer and Bernie Hanighen’s “Bob White (Whatcha Gonna Swing Tonight?).” These are pure renditions, not only for lack of a band, but because, despite playing with melody, she never delivers anything less than the full intention of the song.

Loren Schoenberg, formerly musical director for Bobby Short, currently Director of The Jazz Museum in Harlem, joins the singer beginning with “When It’s Sleepy Time Down South” (Clarence Muse, Leon René and Otis René). His mellow horn adds the perfect texture of a drinker’s voice—breathy and sandy; solos have purposeful grace. With “I Go for That” (Frank Loesser and Matty Malneck) and Duke Ellington and Lee Gaines’s “Just Squeeze Me,” Sherman mugs a bit. Sassy moments of Betty Boop emerge in the second number. She makes it work. Later, there are deft blues.

Except for too much storytelling and the seemingly rudderless “Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing in a Hurry” (Johnny Mercer and Victor Schertzinger), the program is great old material well suited to the singer. Her stage persona is warm, her talent evident. Young singers take note. Less is more.

Alix Cohen
Cabaret Scenes
May 20, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org