Café Carlyle’s DeSare Lands Lovingly at Landmark

This article was posted by Adina Genn; it was written by Mark Underwood. 

When parents choose a name, they do so without knowing how well it will fit with the grown child’s career path. In the case of one small town baby in upstate New York, the choice could not have been more apt. The land of Tony Awards and Tony Bennett was about to issue forth one Tony DeSare.

The Café Carlyle regular began his second appearance at the Landmark singing the not often heard “All About Love,” covered in the 90’s by Natalie Cole. Backed by guitar, standup bass and drums, he began the song sans piano, striding on stage with the tune’s casual wisdom about love -- that “ . . . you can think about it, drink about it / But if you're on the brink about it / Don't fall till you know all about love.” Before long he was back on the piano bench to finish the tune.

DeSare then performed a moving version of George Gershwin’s “Somebody Loves Me,” followed by his original take on a scandalous dance form in his “New Orleans Tango.” Next he reprised his micro-skit about his radio-ready Hampton Jitney jingle “East to the Sea.”

When the ensemble launched into Cole Porter’s “Just One of Those Things,” DeSare’s arrangement featured some nice piano and jazz guitar unisons – a lost swing era timbre. This was followed by “Just in Time,” which began with a walking bass line and transitioned to guitar / piano improvisation. Reviewers tend to overlook DeSare’s solid piano ability, which was frequently on display during the evening.

One night DeSare was surprised by Paul McCartney at the Carlisle, who complimented DeSare’s “How I will Say I Love You,” which DeSare then performed for the Port audience.  This was followed by Irving Berlin’s “I Love a Piano,” which featured a middle transition to a cookin’ version of Alexander’s Ragtime Band, which then returned its original theme.

From Gypsy, he sang “All I Need is the Girl,” reminiscent of DeSare’s role in the off-Broadway show, My Sinatra. He followed this with the Gershwins’ Academy Award-winning “They Can’t Take That Away from Me,” which featured guitarist Decker’s clever use of the 7-string guitar’s low B string.

DeSare was not afraid to stray outside The Songbook for the evening’s selections, as he did when he performed Journey’s ballad “Faithfully.”

“I hope you like it better than the ‘Glee’ version,” he quipped.

On this return to the Landmark (he appeared in 2008), he played with a trio, recalling the successful trio of his Ithaca College years. The trio consisted of Edward Decker’s able jazz guitar featuring a 7-string hollow body electric. Decker studied for a time under guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli. Steve Doyle played standup bass (but as DeSare was quick to note, elsewhere also plays piano and sings). Doyle has performed with numerous other jazz vocalists including Christine Ebersole. On drums, Mike Klopp provided a crisp backdrop that worked well for the jazz-influenced originals, but was essential for the rock tunes to work as well as they did.

The evening had two highlights for this reviewer. One was the quartet’s version of the Nat King Cole instrumental “Jumpin’ at Capitol.” The audience loved its profusion of notes, fast guitar / piano licks and spritely tempo changes. He then stood up for a version of the tune James Taylor made famous, “How Sweet It Is,” and was back at the piano for some upbeat triplet phrasing before returning to the theme at the familiar “Stop to thank you, baby.”

The other highlight was “Fire,” a tune that Springsteen wrote for Presley but that became a hit for the Pointer Sisters. DeSare strode into the audience to court several lucky women, then invited the audience to join him for 20 seconds of exuberant finger snapping. When he returned to the piano, it was for a headlong jump into the rockabilly classic, “Great Balls of Fire.”  In true Jerry Lee style, DeSare managed to kick out some dramatic treble clef tone clusters on the Landmark Steinway with his right foot.

The audience was a friendly one. Some knew DeSare’s original tunes, so when he offered to play a request or two, those surfaced in addition to ones penned by Irving Berlin and Jule Styne. He complied with his own “Last First Kiss,” and closed the show with an uplifting [sic] rendition of perennial favorite “Fly Me to the Moon.”

But bring me back for the next time Tony’s in town.

Landmark’s next show will feature Nellie McKay and Red Molly on Saturday May 18.