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Ellen Kaye’s newest show at The Metropolitan Room is a stunner. It is entitled Ice Wine: Songs for Dark Winter Nights. It was my first time seeing Ms. Kaye perform and I was absolutely floored. Her energy was bright and sexy at the same time. And, she was as comfortable singing Springsteen as she was with singing a love song by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin. Her voice has a slightly raspy yet appealing quality. One could compare her to Liza Minnelli, Janis Joplin, Taylor Dayne, and Melanie combined. Her vocal sound is unique and magnetic.
The theme of the show was “songs for dark winter nights.” I feel that she pulled this theme together very well with her choice of numbers. Some were figuratively dark like Annie Lennox’s “Cold,” Sting’s “Hounds of Winter,” and Walter Becker’s “Book of Liars.” Others were pieces that could perk a listener up on a cold winter day or night like Babe Wallace Emett’s “Chicken” -- made famous by Cab Calloway -- or the ever- romantic Weill and Gershwin song “This Is New.” Another lively choice was “That’s Life” by Kelly Gordon and Dean Kay. Kaye not only was expressive with her face and voice in her interpretations of all the numbers, but she showed a lot of her effervescent personality in her interaction with her band members and the audience. She laughed often and shared a bit of her personal life when she wasn’t dancing up a storm with her band.
An interesting fact about Kaye is that she is not only a singer, but a restaurateur by birth. She is the daughter of the family who owned The Russian Tea Room in its heyday from 1947 to 1996. She is also opening her own restaurant, Moscow 57, in the near future. Kaye talked a bit about this experience while complimenting the newly renovated Metropolitan Room. “From a restaurateur’s perspective, this place looks great!” It does -- with new carpeting, lighting fixtures, newly-painted walls with a new color scheme, and new table tops. And, it looked and felt even better with this whirlwind of a performer up on the stage. She wore a classic black chiffon top and tailored black pants. Her lovely blonde hair added to the performance as she often tossed it about like a great rock singer would. She even made a joke about it: that “people listen more when you are blonde!”
Ms. Kaye’s band was sensational and included Ethan Fein, the music director, on guitar and banjo, Benjamin Brown on bass, Claire Daly on saxophones, flute, and clarinet, and Ricky Martinez on drums. There was also Glenn Drewes, a guest trumpet soloist. He played with the band on “Be Good to Me Tonight” by Harvey Lindsey Hoy II, Wallace Daniel Pennington, and James Carson Whitsett and on “Hounds of Winter.” Kaye also had a fabulous male back-up vocalist, Cleve Douglass, on a few of her numbers. I highly recommend this show to anyone who likes many different types of music. Her song choices ran the gamut. Other selections included “Tempted” by Christopher Henry Difford and Glenn Martin Tilbrook, “Trademark” by Sidney Easton, and the fun and youthful “When I Was a Boy” by Dar Williams. And, the best part is that she performed each song as though it were written for her. It seems as if this woman can sing anything and sing it well!
Ellen Kaye will be at The Metropolitan Room for two more performances of Ice Wine: Songs for Dark Winter Nights on February 2 and February 29. The show is tied to her new CD Ice Wine: Songs for Christmas and Dark Winter Nights. For more information on the singer and to hear samples from her new album, see www.Moscow57.com. Ellen can also be found at http://www.myspace.com/ ellenkayeband. Ellen's CDs are available at www.CDbaby.com. The Metropolitan Room is located at 54 West 22 Street in Manhattan. Ellen's February shows are both at 7:00 pm. There is a $25 cover charge plus a two-beverage minimum. Reservations may be made by telephone: 212.206.0440 or online at www.MetropolitanRoom.com where a full calendar of the club's many shows, with descriptions, can be found.
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