Judith Owen Obeys the Carlyle’s Unwritten Bobby Short Law in Style

There’s an unspoken law that is apparently mandatory for anybody playing the Café Carlyle: You can’t get through even a single set without dropping the name of Bobby Short. It was the late and truly great Bobby who transformed what was originally a small-time piano-bar-ish room that catered primarily to upscale locals and Hotel Carlyle guests into an internationally known venue that has come to symbolize the upper brackets of sophistication.Judith Owen, who played the Carlyle this past week and who has a new album containing most of that repertoire, stayed true to that tradition, referencing the legendary Robert Waltrip Short at least once, thus underscoring the great legacy of the room itself.It was Bobby who set the standard, but there have been worthy constituents ever since: the late Barbara Cook and Elaine Stritch in the 2000s, Steve Tyrell and Buster Poindexter in the 2010s, and, more recently, Tony Danza and the John Pizzarelli-Jessica Molaskey combo in the post-pandemic world.The Carlyle’s legacy is even bigger than Short himself, yet the standard he set for all future artists there has been rarely equaled and never surpassed. You need to be a major musician as well as a superior entertainer, and perhaps even more importantly, you need to be lovable or at least engaging, to get everyone in the room rooting for you. But the most difficult balancing act is that you need to be at once larger than life and, at the same time, operate on a very intimate, one-to-one level, to reach everyone in that small room, many of whom are just a handshake away from the stage. It’s an extremely difficult needle to thread.Ms. Owen, making her Carlyle debut has a particular style that reminds me specifically of the late David Johansen, also known as Buster Poindexter. Where Bobby Short might switch from a patter song by Noël Coward to a blues by Bessie Smith, Buster/David was even more deliberately eclectic, ranging from country music to pan-Caribbean dance numbers to show tunes to R&B standards. Ms. Owen, who struts on stage in a feminized version of traditional masculine garb, much like that on the cover of her current album, the wisely titled “Suit Yourself,” wearing a tailored male suit topped with a straight tie and an oversized fedora, provides us with lots of variety even within the specific genre of the blues.The most fundamental blues tune that she does, her opener at the Carlyle, is “Blossom’s Blues” by Blossom Dearie, which the composer performed with her tongue in cheek, since, as Ms. Owen pointed out, she had a look like a librarian and a babyish voice that seemed deliberately at odds with such flamboyantly transgressive lines as “My name is Blossom, I was raised in a lion’s den. / My nightly occupation (is) stealing other women’s men.” Ms. Owen takes it a bit more seriously, but her rendition is still full of humor. Then there’s Curtis Lewis’s 1948 “Today I Sing the Blues,” which Aretha Franklin sang on her first jazz album in 1960 to pay tribute to one of her own idols, Helen Humes. “Evil Gal Blues” likewise originates at the very beginning of Dinah Washington’s career, and is another sharp-edged declaration of intent: “I’m going to empty your pockets / And fill you with misery.” And there’s “Your Mind Is on Vacation,” still another put-down comedy ode laced with the blues, which could have been comfortably sung by Humes, Franklin, Washington, or even the King Cole Trio. “Since I Fell for You” was a tune by pioneering R&B bandleader Buddy Johnson that became an early rock standard.Ms. Owen, who was born in London of Welsh parentage, takes a leaf from the books of such UK predecessors as Tom Jones, Georgie Fame, Rod Stewart, and other Brits who cultivate a husky growling that ensures that they can comfortably sing the blues without a trace of an English accent, so they don’t sound like Rex Harrison or Julie Andrews imitating Muddy Waters.Ms. Owen knows enough blues variants to fill a set or an album, but she also, Buster style, transitions into such Broadway standards as “If I Were a Bell,” rendered with acoustic guitar and a bossa nova background, and “Shall We Dance?” (Rodgers & Hammerstein, not Gershwin & Gershwin), the latter de-waltzed and reimagined as a languid, erotic ballad. There are also echoes from the hard-bop era: Ms. Owen’s original, “That’s Why I Love My Baby,” which opens the album, reprises Benny Golson’s famous vamp from “Killer Joe,” and “Moanin’” is the Jazz Messengers classic by Bobby Timmons.Underscoring the overall sense of swinging, bluesy eclecticism, Ms. Owen’s accompaniment has a distinct New Orleans kind of a feel. The band at the Carlyle is mostly the same as on the album, with a rhythm section of bassist Lex Warshawsky, guitarist David Blenkhorn, and drummer Pedro Segundo, plus cornetist Kevin Louis, who supplied a Miles Davis-inspired Harmon-mute obbligato for “Bell,” and tenor saxophonist Ricardo Pascal. David Torkanowsky, who alternates with Ms. Owen herself on piano, is credited as musical director. The album also features such delights as a full big-band accompaniment on several tracks, and, going to the opposite extreme, “Today I Sing the Blues” is a voice-and-keyboard encounter with Crescent City keyboardist Davell Crawford.Ms. Owen doubtlessly increased her sense of musical diversity as well as showmanship through her musical relationship with Richard Thompson, the ultimate British pan-folklorist and supreme eclectic. She checks every box in terms of our expectations for the most perfect acts at the Carlyle, and though this was her first gig at the storied venue, we hope it won’t be her last.

Judith Owen Obeys the Carlyle’s Unwritten Bobby Short Law in Style

Judith Owen Obeys the Carlyle’s Unwritten Bobby Short Law in Style

More from the New York Sun

Absurdity Governs in Anne Washburn’s ‘ANON’

Loud Ghosts, Little Chill

Will Iran Try To Force a War Sooner Rather Than Later?

NYC Comptroller Mark Levine’s Broken Pledge on Israel Bonds Will Fuel BDS, Predecessor Tells the Sun

Exclusive: Selma Blair on Her Troubled Hollywood Post-October 7 Cancellation

What Would Advances by the Democrats Mean?

If Blakeman Takes Down Hochul, That Means Knocking Out Mamdani, Too

Microbiology Student Captured Trying To Flee to China After Allegedly Poisoning Colleague Over Coveted Technology Patents

More from the New York Sun

Absurdity Governs in Anne Washburn’s ‘ANON’

Loud Ghosts, Little Chill

Will Iran Try To Force a War Sooner Rather Than Later?

NYC Comptroller Mark Levine’s Broken Pledge on Israel Bonds Will Fuel BDS, Predecessor Tells the Sun

Exclusive: Selma Blair on Her Troubled Hollywood Post-October 7 Cancellation

What Would Advances by the Democrats Mean?

If Blakeman Takes Down Hochul, That Means Knocking Out Mamdani, Too

Microbiology Student Captured Trying To Flee to China After Allegedly Poisoning Colleague Over Coveted Technology Patents