By Andrew Poretz . . .
There are few singers of jazz and cabaret today more compelling than the wonderfully talented Nicolas King. The star performed a rare set of pure jazz at The Green Room 42 Wednesday night. Mr. King, of late touring with Seth Sikes as “The New Belters,” has an impressive, decades-long musical résumé, despite being barely into his thirties. His rich, honey-smooth tenor is simply a joy to listen to, with exceptional control and pitch. The performance could have been more widely promoted, though it still attracted a sizeable audience of jazz cognoscenti.
The star was accompanied by the excellent trio of pianist Russ Kassoff, bassist Alan Bernstein and drummer David Hawkins. Kassoff is a superb jazz accompanist who was up to the daunting task of recreating some masterful arrangements by the late Mike Renzi, who worked extensively with Mr. King for many years until his untimely death in 2021. This reporter recognized a number of the charts as arrangements Renzi wrote or revised for the late Mel Tormé, and Mr. King pulled them off perfectly.
Mr. King opened with one such chart, which melded “Just One of Those Things” (Cole Porter) with “Green Dolphin Street” (Bronislaw Kaper/Ned Washington). It was a powerful opening number, with a rubato verse, a section sung with only the bass, and a lovely ballad section before swinging out.
Many of the evening’s selections had been suggested to Mr. King via his Facebook post asking for requests. Fan Bruce Balbach had his plea answered with an exquisitely sung “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” (Manning Sherwin/Eric Maschwitz). The star sang the rarely performed verse a capella. It was simply stunning.
Though this was a jazz set, Mr. King is also a consummate cabaret performer, mentored by the likes of Liza Minnelli, which means personal stories and “patter,” not a mere recital. He told of being exposed to jazz and scat singing at age 7 when his famous grandmother, Angela Bacari, took him to see the show Swing. His “world exploded” when Ann Hampton Callaway performed “Bounce Me Brother With a Solid Four” (introduced by The Andrews Sisters in Abbott & Costello’s Buck Privates). His rendition of this novelty song was a fun diversion.
The star harkened back to his one and only piano recital, at which he also sung, by singing that song, “Moonlight in Vermont,” albeit with Mr. Kassoff providing the piano accompaniment. This was a positively dreamy, evocative rendition that vies with Sinatra’s 1957 recording as the best this writer has ever heard. On ballads in particular, Mr. King displays extraordinary breath control, at times extending the legato phrasing well past the point where ordinary singers would have needed a breath. When I mentioned this to the singer at the post-show reception, he was thrilled, confessing for the first time that he has had severe asthma since six months old, and that his scarred lungs have only a 68% capacity. It is his mastery of diaphragmatic singing, he asserts, that has allowed him to have such control.
Mr. King ventured well past the safety of familiar jazz standards by taking a pair of modern, seemingly banal pop songs and reimagining them as new jazz standards. He was prodded to do this originally by Birdland’s Susie Mosher. First, he took Britney Spears’s debut single “Hit Me Baby One More Time” (Max Martin) and made it, well, interesting. He topped this by taking the Gloria Gaynor disco anthem “I Will Survive” (Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris) and making it into a sultry jazz torch song with R&B/soul tinges.
The star returned to the true standards with his favorite Gershwin song (“Isn’t It a Pity” as a duo number with Mr. Kassoff.) He made himself and the audience laugh with a fake start, pretending it was again “I Will Survive,” before breaking into the verse. This stellar arrangement was perfectly performed with great sensitivity. Mr. King then outdid himself with a breathtaking “Too Late Now” (Burton Lane/Alan Jay Lerner). Marilyn Maye’s spectacular 1966 recording, enshrined by the Smithsonian Institute, is the gold standard for this song. Nicolas King’s moving performance of this classic is right up there.
Mr. King flaunted his jazz chops with a superfast swinger, “Love is Just Around the Corner” (Lewis E. Gensler/Leo Robin), where the Tormé influence was quite apparent, with solos from each of the trio members, fun musical quotes, and a tour de force of scat singing.
A closing number, “I Will Wait for You,” somewhat mirrored the opening number’s arrangement structure, an interesting bookend. A sustained standing ovation garnered an encore, the lovely and picturesque list song, “The Things We Did Last Summer” (Jule Styne/Sammy Cahn), again with only Russ Kassoff.
The old adage “always leave ‘em wanting more” applied here. If the show could have been longer, that’s only because Nicolas King always leaves you wanting more.
Nicolas King: The Jazz Set took place on August 30 at The Green Room 42, 570 Tenth Avenue in Hotel Yotel (https://thegreenroom42.venuetix.com).
Photos: Tom Hubbard except where indicated
