She’s NO Lady!

Foreign Affairs

Isengart & Lady Rizo

Bringing the raunch back to TIMES SQUARE where it belongs, LADY RIZO, a chameleon comedienne chanteuse, opens her set as a gobbling pill-popping, then literally vomiting, housewife. One part cabaret singer, one part burlesque performer, one wonders – “where can she possibly go from here?” But at “Foreign Affairs,” the “transnational lounge, postmodern cabaret” at THE NIGHT HOTEL with her co-host, the precisely campy German cabaret singer ISENGART, the show goes just about everywhere in a rollicking roller coaster ride that left the audience screaming with pure joy.

Presented by producer LEE CHAPPELL, (who created the original Saturday nights at the ROXY from 1990-91, Saturdays at the Palladium, events at the Limelight, Tunnel, USA, etc.), included enough fishnet and feathers to fill a millinery store.  Taking place smack-dab in the middle of the new “Disneyland” on West 45^th Street, this show was a welcomed reverie back to a time of fun-filled elegance, decadence, absurdity, song and dance -- on the smallest stage in NYC. Wednesday night’s performance included everything from German folk songs, to Lou Reeds’ “A Walk on the Wild Side,” along with “the Russian Sourdough Pretzel,” EKATERINA, a stripping contortionist, and the voluptuously muscular Ballet Trockadero dancer, CARLOS MILLER, who singularly comprised the nights’ “Middle Eastern homosexual harem.”

Yes, there was something for everyone of every possible persuasion.  

Did I mention the Muppet? Well ... you'll have to see for yourself.

In beautiful clear voice, fishnets and very high heels, Isengart managed to get a NYC audience to sway in unison to a German beer song, and Lady Rizo got us to sing along, dancing, clapping and shouting.  The party shifted to 5^th gear when Tsar Stefan, the “impresario of NYC cabaret,” who was seated practically on the tiny stage, joined in the fun as the ever-flexible Ekaterina managed to hoist her leg up atop his 6-foot plus frame.  During the wild frolic, Lady Rizo shouted out from the stage: “That’ll cost you $100 between my titties.” True to form, and without missing a beat, Tsar Stefan promptly whipped out a Franklin and shoved it smack in the middle… where upon the “Lady” replied “You’re not getting it back this time, I’m gonna eat it and shit it out so you won’t want it!”

When I read those words in print, “Lady” Rizo sounds course and unappealing, but coming with her lovely smile in the context of her performance, she’s more Mae West than guttersnipe. This powerful Lady, at home with hecklers and able to put each and every one in their place, simultaneously delights us with a lovely voice and her hour-glass figure zipped in an array of skin-tight evening gowns - one for each and every song.  Equipped with a riveting gaze and trained vocal instrument, she’s in control of every nuance.

Dedicating one number to “all the ladies getting Botox,” and with a tongue-in-cheek nostalgic introduction to “My Man” and “the good old days when women got beat up” – she’s a strong performer who can involve us on multiple levels, dead-on serious, violent, over the top disgusting or just pulling our collective leg.

Do I have any regrets after my night of debauchery? Only that Lady Rizo didn’t sing her drop-dead powerful rendition of the song Edith Piaf’s made famous “Non, je ne regrette rien,” which I was privileged to hear recently at Joe’s Pub – the song that drew me to last night’s performance. But I suppose I’ll just have to return another Wednesday for the pleasure – and so should you!

 The show was backed by the ever vigorous and subtle trio of Mike Jackson on guitar, Patrick Farrell on accordion and Dave Berger on percussion, who managed to play in time despite Ekaterina’s leg in his face.

Future Wednesday show dates: 6/10, 7/15 & 8/26, then every Wednesday starting September 16. Doors open at 8 pm, showtime 9:15-10:15. Tickets $20

http://www.foreignaffairsnyc.com/; www.leechappel.com, www.nighthotelny.com

Lady Rizo: http://www.myspace.com/ladyrizo

Isengart: http://www.isengart.info/

After being so high, how could I go home? So we dashed straight across the street THE GRACE HOTEL, where within steps from the street, at “Drip,” the pool party with pretty boys bathing in a multi-colored light drenched swimming pool paraded around in tiny suites. The party, also produced by Lee Chappell, includes several beautifully lit lounges enjoyed last evening by guys in high drag, cute Chelsea types and a smattering of women. Also on hand were the “AlienNation” Creatures costumed by designer Hector Perez, as “Waterina”; Alex as “Blinkarina,” and Raquel Giberstein, the self-proclaimed “Broadway Danny Rose,” as “Swirlien.”

My night concluded when I stopped in for a bite down the street at Europan Bakery Café on my way back to Brooklyn, where the server recognized me from a recent evening because of my handmade necklaces and blue fabric-tied hair. I may not be a star, but I’m recognized on Broadway! See images of my handmade wearable art at http://www.zamo-zamo.com/sticks_and_stones/index.html

VIVA NYC Nightlife!

Judith Z. Miller

Aka Artist Soul

http://www.zamo-zamo.com

Charnett Moffett Blows the Roof off the Iridium!

Blog May 20, 2009

Charnett Moffett’s CD Release party

at the Iridium Jazz Club

“Fierce playing, on both acoustic (arco & pizzicato) and fretless bass.” Downbeat magazine

YES! “Fierce” and sensitive and playful and graceful and majestic! The mind-boggling multi-bassist Charnett Moffett mesmerized audiences at the Iridium Jazz Club last night where he released his 10th solo recording and his Motéma Music debut as a leader, The Art Of Improvisation.

I don’t know what your life is like – certainly I can’t guess what the other 8.2 million people in NYC do on any given day or night -- but last night I witnessed music so profound and wonderful – I realized, yet again, that being alive in the presence of great art and great artists is what makes my life as a New Yorker joyous and worth living.

Charnett Moffett, among the most creative artists alive today, performed with his trio and an assortment of uber-talented friends who, together at the Iridium, blew the house away.

I’ve always been fascinated with the power of rhythm – mostly with a passion for drumming – but I’ve wondered, especially, about bass players. It just seems like they are from another planet, plucking away on those thick strings, keeping the underneath pulse alive, sometimes in a way that seems so odd and different – living in a world where the only mode of communication is the vibration of a deep, dark, string.

Charnett Moffett is one such inter-planetary bass player – a man from another dimension – able to tap the pulse of the universe with his fingers. He taps his universe through your head and your heart and even your groin. Simply put – no one plays like Charnett Moffett, and, with his out-there trio performing live last night at the Iridium, he proved once again, that he is in constant state of invention.

Jazz is, of course, is an improvisational tradition, and with the tradition of permission, Charnett creates his own form of exciting, vibrant and all-encompassing sound. He dances with his instrument. He slides his fingers along the strings in long fell swoops, he taps it percussively with his bow, he draws out the most beautiful and haunting melodies. And Charnett’s driving band has energy to burn – and burn they do - because what they play is clearly all-new all the time.

Steven Scott a piano that sounded, sometimes, like shattered glass, and like water swirling in a fast-moving stream. During his solo he confused me briefly, loosing me in the fast rush of his fingers running on white and black, and then reeled me back in, helping me understand where he had been taking me, with the expert weaving of familiar melodies and musical puns - making me feel comfortable and right back at home again.

When drummer Will Calhoun began to build the rhythm increasing in intensity inside a very funky piece, and then took what turned out to be a long solo, this master was like a rampaging bushfire, a pride of lions moving forward in a spiraling wave-like motion, building, building, and building. Listening to him roar, I felt so damn satisfied!

I had I entered the club, on time for the second set – but the first set just never seemed to end, the energy was so powerful, the band just did not stop. So I slipped in and took a seat while they were still playing. I’m glad I got in that room and didn’t wait, because within the first half hour or so, I heard and felt rhythms that inspired my body to rise up and freed me to get out of my chair to dance. Mr. Moffett inspired me with the freedom of his playing. His band, including the polyrhythmically blessed drummer Mr. Calhoun, ricocheted machine gun bullets, and caressed me with a underlying layer of sway, like an Island women’s hips shaking to a she karee – well, with all that, how then could I stay in my seat?

So there I was, in the middle of the Iridium Jazz Club, shakin’ my 57-year-old booty, dancing around the whole club - alone. Many of you who know me might not find that scenario so strange –me dancing like a wild-woman -- but it’s a rare occurrence, even for me, to dance like that to jazz.

At one point during this astounding concert, I was sitting quietly and I eased out of an hypnotic spell created by the musicians. I looked around the room … heads were nodding and bobbing and bodies were swaying in every kind of curve and pattern imaginable, all in time to the music, with each person immersed in his or her own private ecstasy – I studied the faces – each and every person in that room was in a trance. We were in a collective trance.

After the first set finally ended, the club was filled with an orgasmic afterglow. Charnett’s team of dedicated artist support personnel, including his manager, Vernon H. Hammond III, a very tall, handsome, impeccably dressed man with a debonair air, his publicist the buoyant Don Lucoff, a passionate supporter of his work, Jana Herzen, president of the Motéma record label, and the rest of the team -- all buzzed with the joy of possibility. I could feel it in the air.

I’m sorry if weren’t there too, because you missed one hell of a performance, but I encourage you to check out Mr. Moffett’s tour dates, and pass them along to your friend around the country. http://motema.com/events-artist.php#artist_id44

To see a little glimpse of what the master has to offer, go to: http://www.motema.com/video/CharnettMoffett/75

And here, below, in case you don't believe me, is a quote to further encourage you to learn more about the great Charnett Moffett:

"Moffett is a hypnotic performer. Playing the upright and the electric bass and accompanied only by piano and drums, he mesmerizes with a series of propulsive minimalist grooves..." - DETAILS

All Power to the Music!

Judith Z. Miller

Aka Artist Soul