Caffe Vivaldi

Went to see Stephanie Rearick at Caffe Vivaldi in the Village. It's a rather quaint little cafe/bar around the corner from Bleecker, which means it's out of the path of the hordes & therefore relatively quiet. Stephanie Rearick is a singer & pianist with a gorgeous voice & knack for playing multiple instruments at once. Her website makes mention of both Debussy & Joni Mitchell, which is about right. She also did a cover of a Leonard Cohen tune. She started out the show with an a capella performance, multitracking herself with a sampler & building up to practically a whole choir. When she started in on piano I wished I was sitting at a different angle to see the movements of her fingers because it sounded like she was executing some fancy Chico Marx maneuvers. Opening up for her was Marla Hansen, whom I recently saw play with the Inlets, strumming a viola like a surrogate ukulele & singing wispy ethereal tunes, some of which were covers that took a while to recognize because they were done with such a personal style. Unfortunately the waitresses kept walking back & forth in front of the stage & the front door was rather squeaky so whenever someone came in or out, it was a little disruptive.

I left during the next third act, which was a jazz trio. They were technically competent & all that, but modern lounge jazz just does nothing for me. It sounds so safe, especially with song titles like "Feeling Good" & "With Me." I don't want happy feelgood jazz. I'm not there to have a good time. I wanna hear bleeding souls being retched out. I wanna see Charlie Parker with a needle still dangling from an engorged vein stumbling off the bandstand. I wanna see rivulets of blood pouring from Coltrane's skull as he tackles a passage with every ounce of concentrated strength he can muster. I wanna see Monk summoning tormented ghosts from other worlds which only he can glimpse. Maybe I'm just old fashioned that way.