Music for Grownups: A Midsummer Night's McKay
By: Richard Gehr | Source: AARP.org | 2008-07-17
Richard Gehr is a veteran music critic based in New York City. His reviews for AARP.org appear every Tuesday; his columns on Thursdays.
Slow, slow, quick-quick. Slow, slow, quick-quick.
That was the basic instruction repeated frequently during the lighthearted swing dance class that preceded the first night of the Lincoln Center's annual Midsummer Night Swing series, held outdoors in Manhattan's Damrosch Park. Swing's never been my thing, frankly, so I was surprised, and soon delighted, to find myself surrounded by an overflow crowd of more than a thousand smiling dancers of diverse ages, races, sizes, and abilities, all gleefully swinging and twirling their way through the hot, humid evening.
Despite the name, you can hear disco, salsa, Bulgarian wedding music, and much more (peruse the complete calendar here) during Midsummer Night Swing's 16 shows, which take place from July 8–26.
The series kicked off, however, with the quirky traditionalism of the terrific young singer-songwriter Nellie McKay, who debuted her new Aristocrats swing band. McKay, a ravishing blonde, resembled an updated Doris Day in a puffy-shouldered, floor-length black and red frock with a gigantic bow in back.
McKay's looks are deceiving, though, as her most recent album, a jazzy froth of bouncing tunes, swinging arrangements, and man-the-barricades rebellion, will attest. Titled "Obligatory Villagers," the record revives the womanly wit of cabaret icons likes Annie Ross and Blossom Dearie in such half-spoken, half-sung lines as "kittens high-hattin', sittin' on satin, with a host who's catnip-fond."
She played it surprisingly straight in Damrosch Park, however, kicking off the evening with "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)." Duke Ellington's 1931 classic anticipated the so-called Swing Era by three years and was, many believe, the first tune to use "swing" in the title. As dancers chatted and cavorted, McKay peppered only a few of her own songs among the dozens of Great American Songbook pages she breezed through during the ensuing two and a half hours.
McKay was a dazzling pianist when she played vintage-sounding originals such as "Happy Flower"—although lyrics such as "Me and you/ We misbehave/ We trample fecklessly upon the bladder of our hearts" suggested a more recent origin. Otherwise, McKay either strummed her ukulele or simply stood and crooned the oldies, including "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," "Satin Doll," "They All Laughed," and "On the Sunny Side of the Street." Once missing a cue to sing one of her own tunes, she appeared flustered before quipping to her bandleader, the trumpeter Billy Grey: "As John said to Paul, 'I like your songs better than mine.'" Lennon said no such thing, of course, but the self-deprecation was cute all the same.
Swing is a particularly social music. And socializing doesn't get much more serious than when one dancer proposes marriage to another on bended knee between two sets; that’s what happened at Damrosch Park, much to the delight of the surrounding crowd. The moment also neatly justified the social-networking feature that Midsummer Night Swing added to its Web site this summer. Who knows? Maybe you'll meet your one and only during upcoming concerts featuring the tango music of Orquesta Típica Imperial, singer Mary Stallings and the Harlem Renaissance Orchestra, and the jump blues of Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers.
Now, if you'll excuse me...
Slow, slow, quick-quick. Slow, slow, quick-quick.
That was the basic instruction repeated frequently during the lighthearted swing dance class that preceded the first night of the Lincoln Center's annual Midsummer Night Swing series, held outdoors in Manhattan's Damrosch Park. Swing's never been my thing, frankly, so I was surprised, and soon delighted, to find myself surrounded by an overflow crowd of more than a thousand smiling dancers of diverse ages, races, sizes, and abilities, all gleefully swinging and twirling their way through the hot, humid evening.
Despite the name, you can hear disco, salsa, Bulgarian wedding music, and much more (peruse the complete calendar here) during Midsummer Night Swing's 16 shows, which take place from July 8–26.
The series kicked off, however, with the quirky traditionalism of the terrific young singer-songwriter Nellie McKay, who debuted her new Aristocrats swing band. McKay, a ravishing blonde, resembled an updated Doris Day in a puffy-shouldered, floor-length black and red frock with a gigantic bow in back.
McKay's looks are deceiving, though, as her most recent album, a jazzy froth of bouncing tunes, swinging arrangements, and man-the-barricades rebellion, will attest. Titled "Obligatory Villagers," the record revives the womanly wit of cabaret icons likes Annie Ross and Blossom Dearie in such half-spoken, half-sung lines as "kittens high-hattin', sittin' on satin, with a host who's catnip-fond."
She played it surprisingly straight in Damrosch Park, however, kicking off the evening with "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)." Duke Ellington's 1931 classic anticipated the so-called Swing Era by three years and was, many believe, the first tune to use "swing" in the title. As dancers chatted and cavorted, McKay peppered only a few of her own songs among the dozens of Great American Songbook pages she breezed through during the ensuing two and a half hours.
McKay was a dazzling pianist when she played vintage-sounding originals such as "Happy Flower"—although lyrics such as "Me and you/ We misbehave/ We trample fecklessly upon the bladder of our hearts" suggested a more recent origin. Otherwise, McKay either strummed her ukulele or simply stood and crooned the oldies, including "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," "Satin Doll," "They All Laughed," and "On the Sunny Side of the Street." Once missing a cue to sing one of her own tunes, she appeared flustered before quipping to her bandleader, the trumpeter Billy Grey: "As John said to Paul, 'I like your songs better than mine.'" Lennon said no such thing, of course, but the self-deprecation was cute all the same.
Swing is a particularly social music. And socializing doesn't get much more serious than when one dancer proposes marriage to another on bended knee between two sets; that’s what happened at Damrosch Park, much to the delight of the surrounding crowd. The moment also neatly justified the social-networking feature that Midsummer Night Swing added to its Web site this summer. Who knows? Maybe you'll meet your one and only during upcoming concerts featuring the tango music of Orquesta Típica Imperial, singer Mary Stallings and the Harlem Renaissance Orchestra, and the jump blues of Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers.
Now, if you'll excuse me...
Slow, slow, quick-quick. Slow, slow, quick-quick.
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