By: Denis McKeown
Songstress Nicole Henry conjured up her childhood in Pennsylvania for Saturday night’s performance at Feinstein’s at the Loews Regency, tapping into the “diverse, groovy” decade of the 1970s, to entertain her fans. Her musical parents inspired her to become the Bistro Award-winning jazz vocalist now heralded as “the vocal love-child of Whitney Houston and Sarah Vaughn” by her hometown newspaper The Miami Herald.
A sleek column of silky black rose to the stage when Nicole appeared with her raspberry-streaked hair to welcome an eager crowd to an exploration of the music of the 1970s, considered by many to be one of the most vibrant and influential decades in popular music. Helping to do the historic musical “digging” was an astounding team of musicians, Adam Rogers on guitar, Kevin Hayes on Piano, Vincente Archer on Bass and Clarence Penn on drums.
Nicole Henry was, indeed, “So Good, So Right” as she explored the works of Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Al Green, Aretha Franklin, among others, in the elegant mini-Ballroom, which took on a gilded glow of its own with talented musicianship. After being named 2002′s Best Local Musician by Miami New Times, Nicole elected to embrace jazz, leading to the 2004 release of her debut CD, “The Nearness of You”, winning considerable attention from audiences and critics in both the U.S. and Japan. Her latest release, “Embraceable,” leads her in still another growth pattern for the future.
The University of Miami graduate, so elegant and simple onstage, has established herself as one of the jazz world’s most acclaimed and respected young vocalists with an expressive and resonant voice. Nicole opened with Gerry Raffety/Joe Egan’s “Stuck in the Middle with You,” an inside joke to the nearby fans who were mesmerized by her talent, and dumbstruck at the beautiful, confident woman/enchantress before them. Her broad arms embraced the room as her voice broke into the theme of the night, “So Good, So Right,” by Brenda Russell, and we all had no choice but to follow her lead.
Feinstein’s is a virtual Palace of sound, as Nicole went into Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” and saddened us with Bob Marley’s “Waiting in Vain” and Bill Wither’s “Use Me.” The Seventies became alive with Nicole’s rendition of James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain,” with the audience chiming in, alive with the singing and soaring guitar magic, clapping the night away.
Nicole learned Aretha Franklin’s “Spirit in the Dark” from a family record album, and told the audience she is still building on Aretha’s Cathedral of Song, as she offered us her personal magic.
Add Stevie Wonder’s “They Won’t Go When I Go,’ “Home” by Charlie Smalls and “Sweet Love” by Lionel Ritchie, and we toasted Nicole Henry with a sip of Merlot and a standing ovation, much of it aimed as well to the musicians who spun a musical web; the fabulous Nicole Henry, definitely a Queen of the Night.
Nicole Henry appears thru May 12th www.feinsteinsattheregency.com 212 339-4095
Posted by Sandi Durell
on May 10, 2012. Filed under Cabaret,Cabaret and Interviews - Sandi Durell,COLUMNS,ENTERTAIMENT.
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