Alexander Stewart gave a terrific concert celebrating the release of his debut jazz CD, All or Nothing at All.  It’s a great recording, with a wide-ranging repertoire, and Stewart rose to the occasion tonight, showing off his golden voice to perfection with songs from the CD, along with others.

The evening kicked off with a swinging “Black and Gold” (Sam Folson/Jesse Rogg) with great brass punctuation. “All or Nothing at All” (Arthur Altman/Jack Lawrence) was delivered with a dark samba beat and some lovely rhythm changes.  Stewart showed how good he is at storytelling in “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” (Paul Simon). “Infatuation” (Alex Webb), is a tender ballad, reminiscent of Chet Baker for its simplicity and delicious trumpet.  But for my money, the best two songs of the evening were “The Hard Way” (Alex Webb) with a funky ’60s groove, a fab brass intro with some great chord progressions and excellent solos on piano and sax, and “Drive My Car” (McCartney, with Lennon) keeping in the same groove, and again with sensational solos on sax, trumpet, trombone and piano.

When I first saw Stewart last year, my complaints were that he sounded too much like Michael Bublé and he didn’t intereact with the audience enough.  He’s pretty much fixed the first issue.  He still has a bit of a Bublé croon to him, but their voices have a similar quality, and that can’t be completely avoided.  While certain inflections are very reminiscent of Bublé, Stewart is claiming his own territory.

Stewart’s a real talent.  He’s only 23, he has the look, his voice is warm, clear and very listenable, he croons and swings with the best of them, he understands his lyrics and he has great musicians and management supporting him.  Even though he seemingly has it all, there’s still something missing, and here’s what I think it is.  There’s little, if any, audience interaction.  He occasionally introduces a song, and once during a show of two hours he flirted with an audience member, but what you rarely get is any insight into his personality.  Stewart stands on stage singing beautifully, and he moves to the groove, but there’s almost an invisible barrier between him and his audience, so you don’t really warm up to him.  He will make a great recording artist, but what will elevate him to the next level in performing is learning to have some fun with his audience.

He was accompanied by a stellar group of musicians: Alex Webb (piano); Andy Cleyndert (bass); Andy Chapman (drums); Nathaniel Facey (alto sax); Frank Griffith (tenor sax); Freddie Gavita (trumpet); and Winston Rollins (trombone).

Harold Sanditen
Cabaret Scenes
September 12, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org