By Holli Harms
She enters with the energy and joi de vivre of a teenager! A teenager in sparkles and diamonds and boa and with one hell of singing voice!
Her voice with its hints of Judy Garland and Ethel Merman can belt, hold notes til the sun goes down, and sell a song full of emotion. She is Laurie Vega and you haven’t heard of her but you will. Her rocket is loaded and ready for take-off.
Laurie brought her classic jazz blues chops in full force to Don’t Tell Mama. She had us swaying and tapping and bouncing in our chairs and smiling from ear to ear.
Laurie and her marvelous backup band, headed by musical director and pianist Tracy Stark with Skip Ward on Bass and David Silliman on drums took us on a glorious evening of quintessential jazz classics; “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”, “That Old Black Magic”, “Teach Me Tonight”, “Black Coffee”, “All Of My Tomorrows”, “The Very Thought of You”, “Whatever Lola Wants”, but in Vega’s version, it’s “Whatever Laurie Wants Laurie Gets”, yeah she does!
It is a marvelous jubilant evening concluding the fun with Tracy Stark hitting piano chords that everyone knows but especially we New Yorkers, we who were born in the city that doesn’t sleep and we who choose it as our home, moving from all over to arrive at her doorstep ready for the adventure, those few chords we know so well, and the room is clapping and cheering as Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind” starts with those simple chords and builds with Vega’s singing of love to her city, the city of dreamers and thinkers and hopefuls, a city with unlimited energy, she is belting up to the moon and back.
Vega ends the evening with what she refers to as her signature song, “Guess Who I Saw Today?” A wife lets her husband know in this beautiful haunting tune that she saw him with his affair together at a bar, deeply in love. She is calm and clear as she lets him know who she saw today- “I saw you.” Vega gave it the quiet weight and restraint needed. Oh, so wonderful.
I don’t often get to introduce a talent and I am so happy to introduce to all of you, Laurie Vega.
And if you haven’t been to Don’t Tell Mama in a while treat yourself to the classic New York cabaret. The space is fabulous and the shows will enrich.
Don’t Tell Mama 343 W 46th St (between 8th & 9th Ave) New York, NY 10036
$10.00 Cover Charge and a $20.00 Minimum (Must Include 2 Drinks) Per Person. June 30th. More to come!
CASH ONLY
