Good songs, like good friends, are best savored at a leisurely pace. Case in point: Sandy Stewart—quiet, unhurried, with simplicity of style, surrounding each song she sings with a lingering, loving embrace. That approach was center stage as she and jazz pianist (and son) Bill Charlap combined their complementary talents during a two-week run in November at The Algonquin Hotel’s Oak Room.

Stewart’s voice is as rich as ever—unforced, comfortable to listen to, gliding from note to note, perfect for the intimacy of the Oak Room, while Charlap’s intricate accompaniments are musical treats in themselves: sometimes quirky, yet at all times supporting her singing.

The songs and their writers were indeed old friends to fans of the American Songbook. Rodgers and Hart were represented by “Where or When,” sung in a slow, lingering style accenting its romanticism. Irving Berlin’s contributions included the Astaire/Rogers dance classic, “Change Partners,” in which Stewart, standing stock still, nevertheless seemed to be dancing in place. Among other writers: Victor Young and Ned Washington (“I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You”); Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II (with a gliding “All The Things You Are”); Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed (the ebullient “Singin’ in the Rain”); Duke Ellington and Eddie DeLange (“Solitude”), and Ned Washington and Leigh Harline (represented by a wistful “When You Wish Upon a Star.”)

Mid-show, Ms. Stewart took a break while Charlap, a recognized artist in his own right, bent over the keyboard to offer an interlude of jazz pieces.

Peter Haas
Cabaret Scenes
November 2, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org