‘Songbook Sundays’ Dizzy’s Club, Jazz at Lincoln Center“Songbook Sundays,” which just wound up its fourth session at Dizzy’s Club in Jazz at Lincoln Center, is a pretty surefire idea. Take three terrific singers, a first-rate band, and the music of an iconic American songbook composer, and then hire an attractive, eloquent, and knowledgeable expert like Deborah Grace Winer to produce and host, and you really can’t go wrong. This is all especially true of this past Sunday’s installment, titled, “Always: Irving Berlin.”The star vocalists were a three-time Grammy winner, Debby Boone, who has created hits in at least three genres: pop, country, and gospel; a Broadway-centric baritone with many strings to his bow, Darius de Haas (he’s the singing voice of the Shy Baldwin character in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”); and a remarkable 18-year-old jazz prodigy, Anaïs Reno, who is gifted with both a tonal and an emotional profundity far beyond her years. The accompanying group, led by pianist and musical director Joe Davidian, included drummer Jerome Jennings, the venerable bassist and occasional vocalist Jay Leonhart, and another nascent jazz star, tenor saxophonist Abdias Armenteros.Here’s how it worked: Ms. Boone supplied the charm, Ms. Reno was heavy on chops, and Mr. De Haas came loaded with both. For a first round, Ms. Boone launched the set with a bright and chirpy “There’s No Business Like Show Business” — everybody’s idea of a perfect opener. Ms. Reno followed with a hypnotic reading of “Remember,” starting with just Mr. Jenning’s brushes, and then reconfigured ever so slightly but nonetheless significantly as a jazz waltz. Next, Mr. De Haas rendered “Isn’t This a Lovely Day (To Be Caught in the Rain)?” with so much sultriness and soulfulness that he might have retitled it, “Isn’t This a Lovely Day To Be Caught in a Rainy Night in Georgia?”Apart from the three headliners, the remaining talent was also formidable. Abdias Armenteros led the quartet in a powerful “How Deep is the Ocean,” the Berlin ballad that lately seems to be most popular among jazz instrumentalists. Mr. Leonhart also delivered a wry, blues-driven reinterpretation of “Change Partners,” accompanied only by his own bass and Mr. Jennings’s drums.Elsewhere in the evening, Mr. De Haas — whom for years I was tempted to compare with his uncle, the outstanding singer-pianist Andy Bey, though his voice lately has taken on all kinds of new colors and shades — made “Cheek to Cheek” sound highly erotic, and Ms. Boone broke many a heart with a slowed-down take on still another Irving Berlin-Fred Astaire classic, “Be Careful It’s My Heart.” Ms. Reno delivered her final salvo with “White Christmas,” starting with the seldom-heard verse a capella, but then restyling the chorus to fit the template of the iconic Ahmad Jamal/Israel Crosby/Vernel Fournier arrangement of “Poinciana.” (Coincidentally, it was the second time that night I heard it worked into a Christmas song; an hour or so earlier, at Birdland, the Benny Benack/Steve Feifke big band used the “Poinciana” drumbeat as the basis for “I’ll Be Home For Christmas.”) For a finale, the entire company closed with an ensemble vocal on “Let Yourself Go.” Between songs, Ms. Winer regaled us with pithy observations and factoids regarding Berlin’s monumental career. Everything was as it should be — except that a program of this scope seemed rather short at 65-70 minutes. Overall, the series may have outgrown the space at Dizzy’s. Future installments would benefit from being expanded to at least a full 90 minutes and moved about 500 feet to the right, to the larger Appel Room on the other side of the Jazz at Lincoln Center atrium. That’s the only change I would make. More importantly, this is a valuable series that is set to continue on February 5, with the Rodgers and Hart songbook. Thank goodness no one forgot to remember.
