"Am I Blue?" is a 1927 song by Harry Askt and Grant Clarke, performed by the great, early song stylist Ethel Waters in the first all-talking, all-color film, On With The Show. It also, incidentally, happens to be a near perfect title for our Fall cabaret.
Marking the first of a longer-term series we will present exploring lament in all of the vast range of song literature, Am I Blue? is driven by a strain of the blue that lies within the standards songbook--those which seem to me to be infused with the influence and gesture of blues musical and form roots, and those which carry a residue of lamentation, complaint, emotional concentration--blue as musical grief, pain: a struggle of the spirit; vocal expressions without words; narrative ballad; all related in their fashion to the traditional lament.
Just as some of the songs are sad, however, many are rejoicing. Many revel in jubilation or sass, humor, or the groove of the music. Many transcend the lyric’s grief with music’s glee. They too, still stem from the a similar musical and emotional source. So here, Am I Blue? is a question that is relevant...the song we sing is perhaps not so blue.
This is a set of both well-known and more obscure song standards from 1908-65. "I Ain’t Got Nobody", "Max From The Income Tax", "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "Suppertime", "My Man’s Gone Now", "I Can’t Get Started", "Shaking The Blues Away", "Get Behind Thee, Satan", and some later tours de force: "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)", "Is That All There Is?", "I Shall Be Released", and "Feeling Good", to name just a few.
The songs alone promise an evening of catharsis, up-lift, story-telling, and laughter. I’m so pleased to present them with Jazz Kings director Jesse Cloninger (music director & reeds), Dario LaPoma (piano), Tyler Abbot (bass), and Adam Carlson (drums), and I am so very excited to perform this show for you in November.
-- Siri Vik