Gabrielle Stravelli at Birdland
Gabrielle Stravelli makes it look easy. Were it not for formidable technique, one might equate performance with a shrug. Flexible alto slip sides from pearly to crackling. Melisma (a group of notes or tones sung on one syllable) is expert. Vocal embroidery never strays too far from melodic signposts. Stravelli puts her own subtle stamp on everything with such obvious pleasure, we can’t help but ride tandem.
“Too Marvelous for Words” (Richard Whiting/Johnny Mercer) opens this evening with buoyancy. Piano dances around melody while bass incorporates it. “Isn’t It a Lovely Day?” (Irving Berlin), she asks leaning out towards the audience with candor. It’s an easy, soft shoe tempo; flirty. Her eyebrows rise.
The first of two deft pairings, Billy Strayhorn’s “Day Dream” and Ignacio Brown/Gus Kahn’s “You Stepped Out of a Dream” seem to follow as if written together. Stravelli rolls “day” around her mouth- savoring before it exits. Her head turns as if music slides from one side to the other. Seamless and bridgeless (a neat trick) we segue to a swinging “Dream.” The vocalist bubbles, bounces. Is she aware one hand moves slowly down the side of her body almost caressing?
The second is Rodgers and Hart’s “Little Girl Blue” (which Stravelli first learned at an unprepared 15) with Chet Forrest/Robert White’s “Blue World.” “Little Girl” floats in light, but not fragile. She sighs the lyric. “Blue World” is a slow foxtrot. “So sit there and count the raindrops,” the vocalist sings in pristine a capella.
“Love Me or Leave Me” (Walter Donaldson/Gus Kahn) begins with finger snaps and syncopated bass, so cool a sound, one can’t help but wish the entire song would be offered this way. Piano comes in like flannel ballast, bass as if pinking shears. “My love is your love,” she grins.
Its rarely heard verse introduces “It Was Written on the Stars” (Harold Arlen/ Leo Robin). Low/hushed, it’s an unadulterated, grade A, unhomogenized ballad performed without fuss or fancy digression; an after hours piano conjuring regulars who nurse last call drinks; utter romance. “Day In, Day Out” (Rube Bloom/ Johnny Mercer) follows, up tempo, happy, with a segment of terrific, unique scat. The set closes with a cozy encore of “I Walk a Little Faster” (Cy Coleman/Carolyn Leigh); confident anticipation.
Stravelli is genial, providing just enough connecting patter to make things a tad more personal. Musicians are complicitous, skilled, creative; arrangements successfully bespoke. A good time.
Photos courtesy of the performer
Gabrielle Stravelli at Birdland
MD/Piano- Michael Kanan; Pat O’Leary- bass
Birdland
315 West 44th Street
Tuesdays through July. All different sets