I used to think that the older Marilyn Maye gets, the better she gets. Lately I realized that isn’t quite right, although she does sound greater and greater each time I hear her—and over the last 16 years or so that she’s been performing regularly in New York again (this latest phase of her career, which only began when she was pushing 80), I have heard her live at least 50 times.
So with so much Marilyn experience behind me, I think I can break down her remarkable ongoing formula for continued greatness: It’s a combination of sheer chops, miraculous show biz acumen, incredible musicianship, a razor sharp sense of humor, plus miles and miles of heart. You can reduce her artistry to an algorithm, perhaps, but alas, to employ millennial jargon, it’s a formula that is neither scalable nor sustainable, meaning that no one else could possibly duplicate it. (If anyone else wants to try replicating that combination, have at it, I say, and God speed the plow.)
Even as the Omicron creeps upon us, Ms. Maye has already done two full runs in semi-post-pandemic Manhattan, and this New Year’s special at Birdland is completely different from the program that she gave at Feinstein’s in October-November. (There’s also a different trio: this time it’s Billy Stritch, piano and musical director, Tom Hubbard, bass, and Daniel Glass, drums.)
But, as always, The Marilyn Maye Show is a combination of medleys and standalone songs, alternating in such a way that nobody notices or cares about the difference. She sings just enough of a song before hopping off into the next one, like a surfer switching waves in mid-ocean. (Is that even possible?) Her opening medley (including “Today I Love Everybody” and “Let There Be Love”) also unveils another favorite Marilyn strategy, taking a song we all know by heart in 2/4 or 4/4 and transforming it into something fresh and original by turning it into a 6/8 jazz waltz. (The medley actually starts with “It’s a Most Unusual Day,” written in 3/4 but here delivered with a relentless swing.) This opening section builds to “It’s Love,” for which she shifts into a clave pattern (as if Leonard Bernstein had written it for West Side Story rather than Wonderful Town).
Then she does something even more remarkable, taking several love songs—“My Romance,” “Why Did I Choose You?” and “That’s All” and doing them as straight as possible, with mostly just piano—no rhythmic or melodic invention here for a change. We then realize that Ms. Maye can keep us on the edge of our seats, essentially in two ways: by either changing the time signature of a song or by not changing it.
Original lyrics are another Maye gambit—but just as I always say no other vocalist should try to scat like Ella Fitzgerald, no one else should try writing original lyrics like Ms. Maye. (Kids, don’t try either one of these things at home.) “Put On a Happy Face” has a long and funny original patter section in the middle that could have been written by Roger Edens for Judy Garland (ie, “When You’re Smiling”). Clearly, there are well more than 50 shades of Maye.
The Wednesday show also included her “face” medley (starting with “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” as a bossa nova, “That Face,” Randy Newman’s “I Love to See You Smile”), the “New York Medley,” and her Fats Waller medley (“Ain’t Misbehavin’,” Honeysuckle Rose,” and starting with “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter,” complete with kisses on her bottom.) She and Mr. Stritch also launched into an apparently spontaneous, heartfelt “My Ship,” leading into “I’m Through With Love,” and “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” which featured a brief duet with Mr. Stritch and whetted my appetite for an all Marilyn-Bacharach show. (Alas, they didn’t treat us to their swell duet on “When I’m in Love,” from Steve Allen’s Sophie. I must make a point to request that next time.) She gave her epic rendition of Paul Desmond’s “Take Five,” which she’s been singing at least since her 1965 RCA debut album “Meet Marvelous Marilyn Maye,” although lately she’s taken to explaining to the house that it’s in 5/4—I guess these days you can’t even count on the crowd at Birdland to be aware of that.
All this, I hasten to add, from a woman who turns 94 in April. (So far, no great singer has ever kept singing to the age of 100, but Marilyn may.) Which brings me back to my original point: last night I realized that I had it the other way around, it’s the older *I* get, the better Marilyn Maye sounds.
Marilyn Maye opened December 29, 2021 at Birdland and runs through January 2. Tickets and information: birdlandjazz.com
