Now that
this series has increased from three showcase evenings to five
showcases and two special concert nights with established performers,
some in the crowd were wondering if the organisers had not thrown
their net too far afield in their search for talent to fill out
the evenings. Surely this event is different from a talent quest.
Judging
from the acts assembled for tonight's convention showing, it would
seem that that organisers had not been very strict in screening
the material. A number of the acts were certainly not ready for
critical appraisal or wider commercial viewing.
Most of
the talent consisted of singers with a smattering of jazz and
impressions thrown in for filler. The majority of performers were
"lounge acts" and not seasoned practitioners of the fine art of
cabaret. A couple of the performers were somewhat embarrassing
in their lack of polish and/or poor selection of material.
Let me
name the highlight of the evening, a young 18 year old performer
named Nathan Foley. He worked the room with high energy and a
level of professional finish that was enviable. Judging from his
singing of "Georgia on my mind" he has more than a passing regard
for Ray Charles, but Foley managed to hold the room on his own
terms and finished with a stunning performance of "Birth of the
Blues." It is not surprising that he has received awards this
year for promise and encouragement. In short he was "hot."
Four other
performers deserve mention: Meryl Leppard, Paul Smith, Gina Zoia
and Benjamin Howes. Leppard is a piano stylist who performed two
tiny excerpts of original material from her one woman show and
managed to convince many of us of her uniqueness. Paul Smith has
come a long way from last year's convention when he was the the
youngest artist on the bill. He is now a very seasoned jazz performer,
singing and playing trumpet.
Zoia opened
the night to a "cold room" and showed much promise, though her
material let her down. Howes suffered the same difficulty with
selection of material, but demonstrated a beautiful voice and
high degree of energy. More exposure will provide more polish.
And so
another evening ended with more questions than smiles and the
anticipation of seeing twelve more acts tomorrow, as well as guest
performer Jeanne Little.
David
Schwartz
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