CD Review
Baby Jane Dexter - With Arms Wide Open
1..
Intro 2. With Arms Wide Open 3. Taking A Chance 4. Sweet Simple Love5. I Want More 6. Telephone Songs 7. The Gentleman is a Dope
8. You Don't Know What Love Is 9. Something To Live For 10. Spinning Wheel
11. Damn Your Eyes 12. Walk a Mile in My Shoes 13. Is You Is 14. Hello Young Lovers
15. More 16. Forever Young
Produced by Jean-Pierre Perreaux
QB0203
“Don’t Get Scared!” warns Baby Jane Dexter, just one song into this live recording of her show at Arci’s Place. Such a warning is familiar to those who have seen this larger than life performer take her audience to the edge of the precipice, invite them to stare down into the abyss and then pull them back safely into her warm and loving embrace. When you missed her impromptu community sing-along of ‘One Meat Ball’ one February night for the benefit of the perplexed guests of the Waldorf Astoria you missed one of the greatest culture clashes since they jostled for the lifeboats on the Titanic.
On
a recording, however, the frisson of danger that pervades Baby Jane’s
shows is always going to be considerably diminished, especially on this
particular recording as the audience reaction wasn’t miked, making them
sound so distant at times that it’s as if they popped next door and were
listening through the door. But this disappointment does have a plus as it
enables the listener to appreciate other aspects of this extraordinary
performer’s talents that are easy to miss when swept up in her
trademark, ‘in your face’ act.
First
and foremost among these less celebrated talents is Baby Jane’s inherent
musicality; whilst not exactly renowned for subtlety, the singer does in
fact handle her material with great deftness and no song emerges without
her distinctive personal styling stamped upon it. ‘Spinning Wheel’
probably exemplifies best her ability to take what in less gifted hands
could easily be a repetitive and very familiar few minutes and turn it
into an emotional tightrope act in which Ross Paterson’s intricate
accompaniment whisks away the safety net and thereby enables the singer to
take the risk of applying a highly intelligent phrasing across what is
played beneath.
Other
familiar songs stamped with this unique styling include ‘The Gentleman
is a Dope’ and ‘Hello Young Lovers’, traditional Richard Rodgers
favourites that she re-invents and therefore establishes herself as a
consummate cabaret performer by taking a chance on something precious to
the audience and leaving them both relieved and reinvigorated by the
outcome.
The
listener can also pick out from this recording Baby Jane’s sense of the
dramatic in her treatment of ‘Damn Your Eyes’ and Kelly Woolford’s
‘Walk a Mile in My Shoes’ in which raw emotion are just kept
sufficiently in check to allow the audience to share the empathy requested
in the latter song.
Baby
Jane is at pains to pay tribute to her arranger Ross Paterson and
indeed this praise is well-deserved, not just for the reasons already
highlighted but also because he has the sense to let this unconventional
woman have her freedom and the wisdom to call her back when it’s time.
As a pair, they make marvellous music.
Baby
Jane is not everyone’s cup of tea; such prosaic imbibing hardly seems to
fit her image in any case, but if you are willing to suspend your
judgement till the end of the performance you may well find yourself
pleased to have been taken on the roller-coaster ride and then brought
back smoothly to your familiar surroundings.