Produced by: Billy Strich and Jim Caruso LML Music CD-125

If Edith Piaf had had to start her career singing to the fish eating public of Dallas, perhaps no-one would ever have heard of the Little Sparrow. Imagine, then, a young Jim Caruso singing the Parisian diva’s love-torn chansons, accompanied on piano by his mother, to Texan gourmands indulging their piscivorous predilections and you have a picture of the inauspicious beginning of a career that has nevertheless brought Caruso to the release of this live CD amidst growing recognition of his comedic and vocal talents.

Caruso’s warm voice welcomes us in a punchy and lively opening medley of Nat King Cole’s ‘Errand Boy for Rhythm’ and Sammy Cahn’s ‘Rhythm in my Nursery Rhymes’ and though the remaining 55 minutes of the album are presented as possibly the world’s longest encore, the energy level never drops. Caruso happily admits that he is indebted to his great friend ("my homey") Billy Stritch for this album and the two combine very pleasingly on Dave Frishberg’s ‘I’m Hip’, a clever nod to the current in-phrases around town which ends with Caruso descending from falsetto to bass, sounding as though Tiny Tim has been joined on stage by Bea Arthur. Caruso is primarily reknowned for his comic touch, and ‘The Boy from Fire Island’ and ‘My New Celebrity is You’ continue the rich vein of in-jokes that can be mined within the cabaret scene. The latter, in particular, is a delicious name-dropping exercise that should be placed in a time-capsule for some future entertainment historian to discover excitedly. Who am I kidding? Caruso is not unaware of the pitfalls of his own profession, who could be after that debut, and his rendition of Glenn Kelly’s ‘A Song for my Friends’ offers heartfelt and sincere encouragement to all who take up the mike. Not.

Jim Caruso can sing a bit too, and with his treatment of ‘If I Only Had a Brain’ he provides one of those moments when a song is re-invented and lifted into a new genre. It’s probably the highlight of the album, though others may argue the case for his rendition of a Kay Thompson arrangement of Berlin’s ‘How Deep is the Ocean?’. This left me bewildered, however, for it is hard to see how a song that can be delivered with stately and intense majesty benefits from being spiced up and turned into something resembling ‘Pop Goes the Weasel’. But that’s just personal taste; some will love it. The Caruso/Stritch pairing is an altogether more appealing aspect of the album, especially when the two combine on yet more ‘rhythm’ songs, ‘Crazy and Fascinating’ respectively, with Stritch’s husky tones blending richly with Caruso’s lighter sound. Stritch gets to display his talent for comedy too, especially in the final number when the two performers triumph again, singing both off key and bereft of rhythm!

It’s clear from the recording that Jim Caruso’s is an act you must catch if you get the chance, but for those too busy tearing into turbot in downtown Dallas, and others even less fortunate than that, this CD is a delicious entrée to the feast of fun he serves up.