It might be sweltering outdoors, but in their Jazz Brunch at 54 Below, Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano were cool, hip, and witty.  Adding jazzy synchronism and rhythms, they brought their sophisticated songbook alive with stories, whether bluesy, lazy tales like “Gone Fishin'” (Nick and Charles Kenny) or “Night Song,” from Charles Strouse and Lee Adams’ Golden Boy, palpable with loneliness.

In a show called Summer in the City, the “summer” connection was subtle. This urbane duo would not go for the obvious and automatically reach for a handful of mundane “summer” tunes.  Except for Jim Lowe’s quirky look at “The Hamptons,” (“Where the literati glitter and the glitterati litter”), most tunes were not about summer at all.  Comstock and Fasano searched for a song’s sizzling, unfettered spirit to spark the imagination and evoke the myriad moods of carefree days and sultry nights in the city.

Comstock, with a dry wit and creatively understated arrangements, added a restrained poignancy to his solo ballads, like the outstanding rendition of “Bittersweet” (Billy Strayhorn and Roger Schore).  Bassist Sean Smith matched their subtle lines, but broke loose with a complex finger-snapping rhythm behind Comstock’s vocal of “This Can’t Be Love” (Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart). Fasano added a sexy dynamic spark into the mix, inviting the audience to join the party, and bringing the intimate into cabaret. John Wallowitch’s “Come a Little Closer” was written for her approach.

Up-tempo or ballad, the couple polished each selection to a new freshness.  They extracted the melancholy loveliness of, “I Cannot Hear the City” (Marvin Hamlisch, Craig Carnelia) from Sweet Smell of Success, and relished in the breezy “Ain’t We Got Fun” (Richard Whiting, Gus Kahn, Raymond B. Egan).  Their opener was catchy. After a tease from Hellol, Dolly!—“Up there/There’s a world outside of Yonkers...”—Comstock and Fasano swung into a snappy “Broadway” (Teddy McRae, Bill Bird, Henri Woode) with Comstock adding a countermelody of “Crazy Rhythm.”  Brunch was as sparkling as a mimosa.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
August 5, 2012
www.cabaretscenes.org