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Arts and Theater
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Black Tie International:
Eric Comstcok &
Barbara Fasano |
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Eric Comstock and
Barbara Fasano: Two for All Roads
By Ward Morehouse III |
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Photo
by: Jeff Fasano
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This can be said for Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano,
cabaret's
royal couple. Their unmistakable voices of precision, warmth
and
humor seem to be everywhere these days from New York's
Carnegie
Hall to Palm Beach's Colony Hotel. This husband-and-wife
singing
duo is also drop-dead gorgeous: their chiseled features hark
back to
the great faces of movies and theater. But not as if they
were old-time MGM headliners. Every smile, frown, and yes,
grimace, is brought
into subjection to their singing.
“Eric Comstock is a busy little wunderkind, keeping a
cherished
tradition alive for a new generation," Rex Reed has said.
I caught up with both of them recently at New York's
Metropolitan Room when Comstock and guitarist par excellence
Randy Napolean released their guitar/voice duet CD
"BITTER/SWEET" on Harbinger Records.
Co-produced by Comstock
and Katherine Miller,"Bitter/Sweet" is a
singular intimate voice/guitar CD. It features songs by
Rodgers & Hart,
Jobim (with a lyric by the late Susannah McCorkle), Lane and
Lerner,
Billy Strayhorn, Henry Mancini, Billy May, Paul Weston and
others --
all arranged by Comstock and Napoleon. There are standards
such as "I Have Dreamed," "This Can't Be Love," "Gone With
the Wind," "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams," "A Nightingale
Sang in Berkeley Square."
The album also includes "Two for the Road," on which
Comstock is joined by Fasano. Comstock’s other CDs include
“No One Knows”, “Young Man of Manhattan” and “All Hart."
Wall Street Journal jazz critic Will Friedwald includes him
in his new book "The Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz
and Pop Singers" (Pantheon, 2010). Napoleon's arrangements
are featured on Freddy Cole's Grammy-nominated salute to
Billy Eckstine, "Freddy Cole
Sings Mr. B."
A star of the Off-Broadway hit OUR SINATRA, Comstock first
worked with Napoleon at a concert for Lincoln Center's
American Songbook in 2003. "This is one of my favorite
musical combinations," Napolean says. "Whoever first carved
a guitar out of a block of wood must have had a singer in
mind -- guitar and voice are that natural together. Eric is
also a first-rate pianist and accompanist, so I was
particularly
honored when he asked me to record with guitar and voice
alone."
"We live in a noisy
world, and Randy and I are trying to show that
whatever is worth saying musically can be said softly and
slowly,"
Comstock adds. "This album is an antidote to stress, and
Randy and I
are extremely proud of it."
Winners of the 2010 Nightlife Award as OUTSTANDING CABARET
DUO,
Comstock and Fasano did their first extended joint
enegagement in
sold-out two-week run at the Algonquin Hotel's Oak Room in
January.
Their show, "HELLUVA TOWN: A New York Soundtrack", won
ecstatic
reviews. Their idiosyncratic mix of songs celebrated the
love/hate
affair many have with New York City including songs by
Rodgers & Hart, Cy Coleman & Carolyn Leigh, Paul Simon and
Billy Strayhorn.
On April 29-30 Comstock and Fasano begin an engagement in
the Royal Room Super Club at The Colony Hotel, Palm Beach
and are back again May 6-7. The Palm Beach Post has hailed
The Colony as "probably the best place for cabaret on the
planet." Comstock and Fasano received an unprecedented three
MAC Awards in one year including Best Vocal Duo, Outstanding
Female Vocalist and Record of the Year. Fasano's
award-winning Record of the Year, “Written In The Stars”, a
Harold Arlen collection, has won plaudits from such diverse
publications as JazzTimes and Playbill. Besides the
Metropolitan Room, their New York engagements have included
Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Feinstein's, The Carlyle and
Birdland. They have also appeared at Caramoor, Cooperstown
Music Festival, Guild Hall in East Hampton,
Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis, Prince Music Theatre in
Philadelphia.
__________________________________________
For more about Eric Comstock go to
http://www.ericcomstock.net/, Randy Napoleon info is att
http://www.randynapoleon.com and for Barbara Fasano
visit
http://www.humanchild.com
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2011 MAC AWARD
NOMINEES FOR MAJOR ARTIST
Eric Comstock &
Barbara Fasano
RETURNING FOR THEIR SIXTH CONSECUTIVE SEASON
TO THE ROYAL ROOM
WITH THEIR CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED NEW SHOW
HELLUVA TOWN:
A New York Soundtrack
FRIDAY, APRIL 29 & SATURDAY, APRIL 30
FRIDAY, MAY 6 & SATURDAY, MAY 7
dinner @ 6:30pm, show @ 8pm
THE
ROYAL ROOM @ THE COLONY PALM BEACH
155
HAMMON AVENUE
PALM BEACH, FLORIDA
RESERVATIONS ~ 561.659.8100
"EXHILARATING ... INGENIOUS MUSICAL WIT ...
THE SOPHISTICATED CABARET CHILDREN OF BOBBY
SHORT & LENA HORNE"
-- Stephen Holden, The New York Times
"THEY ARE SPECIAL ... SWINGING, ARTISTIC &
SUPERBLY ENTERTAINING"
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