No one is going to claim Liliane Montevecchi has the most sumptuous voice in show business–in fact, she very nearly speaks her songs.
But in the intimate world of cabaret, a dramatic gesture, a sly turn of phrase or a knowing way with a lyric can go a long way toward making an interpretive point.
If nothing else, Montevecchi’s show at Toulouse Cognac Bar, where she plays through Saturday, demonstrates how a determined performer without an exquisite set of pipes can delight an audience.
That’s not to say, however, that Montevecchi’s program, titled “On the Boulevard,” is for all tastes. For those uninterested in Parisian ballad singing and a somewhat arch performance manner, Montevecchi’s act may prove a bit much.
But listeners willing to indulge a singer who casts herself as a kind of French Marlene Dietrich (with a Phyllis Diller laugh thrown in for good measure) should be pleased with Montevecchi’s slightly campy stage show.
At her best, the singer genuinely cuts to the essence of a French style of cabaret singing. The way she lingers at the start of a phrase before rushing ahead to its finish suggests a romantic sensibility one associates with Edith Piaf. Indeed, when Montevecchi performs Piaf’s most famous song, “La Vie en Rose,” she evokes a historic and nearly vanished form of French cabaret.
And when Montevecchi sings standards such as “It Might As Well Be Spring” in French, she shows not only her own comfort level with this repertoire but the nearly universal appeal of the classic American pop song.
Further, to hear Montevecchi’s French account of “My Man” (which began life as the French ballad “Mon Homme”) is to get back to the origins of a song long since redefined by American pop culture.
Alas, Montevecchi also has her less than persuasive moments, most notably an attempt at impersonating the inimitable Josephine Baker. The great American expatriate, one of the most charismatic entertainers in the pop-jazz tradition, proves too formidable a figure for Montevecchi’s more modest gifts.
When Montevecchi’s show begins to flag, however, there’s the considerable pleasure of listening to her pianist, Dick Gallagher. A former Chicagoan who has become one of the more sought-after pianists in New York cabaret, Gallagher has been returning home with increasing frequency to accompany Toulouse headliners.
No matter who he is assisting, however, Gallagher does more than just provide a felicitous musical backdrop: He paints pictures in music, as in the shimmering, high-register figures he brought to “Autumn Leaves.”
Someday, Gallagher ought to develop an act of his own.
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Liliane Montevecchi appears at Toulouse Cognac Bar, 2140 N. Lincoln Park West, through Saturday. Phone 773-665-9071.
