Dee Evelyn Matthews "The Best of Life... Remembering"

Jazz song stylist Dee Evelyn Matthews has been absent from New York Cabaret environs since the well-remembered Judy's Chelsea, a great room for singers, closed. She's back, this time at The Laurie Beechman, where she surmounted the lack of intimacy with her personal warmth, working very closely with her musicians and her audience. And she had her superlative long-time musical director/arranger/pianist David Lahm and fine sidemen, bassist Gene Perla and drummer Brian Woodruff.

The four of them matineed with a group of American Standards, opening with the always pleasing "Without a Song," which I think of as an anthem by Edward Eliscu and Vincent Youmans. Favorites among her mostly well-known songs by some of our best songwriters, were "Somebody Up There Likes Me" by Sammy Cahn and Bronislau Kaper, and an Ellington medley of "I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart," which the Duke wrote with Irving Mills, and "Do Nuthin' Til You Hear From Me," by Bob Russell.

Dee closed the main section of her program on an optimistic note with "New World Coming," by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and with lots of applause, came back on stage with a quick costume change. Some years ago, she did a show that was a tremendous success, a tribute to her favorite star Sammy Davis, Jr. Anyone who saw it will remember it fondly, as I do,  and be happy that she encored this season's show by reprising some highlights of that special evening, complete with costume  and attitude, as she sang a medley of "Too Close for Comfort," by George David Weiss, Larry Holofcener and Jerry Bock, and "Hey There" (Richard Adler and Jerry Ross) and a stirring "I've Gotta Be Me" (Walter Marks). What a grand way to spend a New York Saturday afternoon, hearing a talented lady who knows what she's singing about, sharing it with appreciative people who were there to enjoy it.