Sarah and Robin, disco and funk

Sure as you're born, I never thought I'd ever hear Robinella sing disco.

Pull up a chair and let me tell you what happened. This has truly been the week from you-know-where. Also, yesterday was a kinetic but chaotic deadline day. So when I finally left the office just before 6, I knew both Jenn and I needed a break.

By happenstance, my buddy Mike Finn had invited us to Wild Wing Cafe to hear what we thought was going to be a night with Justin Haynes and Sarah Clapp. Justin is a well-known local pianist. Sarah is a super singer originally from Northeast Knox County. We were exhausted but we went.

Made a quick pit stop at McKay's. I'd been looking for a couple of CDs. Found 'em. Also found a listless and soulless clerk at the counter. Whatever. Par for the course.

Well, it turned out at the venue that Justin and Sarah were also being joined by our friend Robinella as well as some other musicians. I guess you could call the group a soul/funk cover band.

We enjoyed the Motown and a cover of Tom Jones' "Too Hot to Handle." Sarah took a real nice turn on Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly."

But then I heard the opening bars to a familiar but unexpected tune. "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor, one of disco's last hurrahs. I saw Robin stepping up to the microphone.

At first I was afraid...

Her eclectic taste is part of her appeal. (Back in the old days you could hear Merle Haggard followed by Billie Holiday followed by Paul Simon at a Robinella show.) But I have to admit I wasn't expecting this! It was a hoot, to say the least. And she did her usual whiz-bang job.

We left not too long after that -- I'm still an "I've got my Hush Puppies on/Guess I never was meant for glitter, rock and roll" kind of guy.

If I've learned one thing in life it's this: Don't be surprised to be surprised.

Some other time

My good friend Doug Harned often tells me whenever we get around to the subject that he doesn't care much for Tony Bennett.

"He's not that good," Doug says. "The only reason he's thought of so highly now is because he outlived everybody else."

That's better than what a co-worker says. She flat out calls Bennett a "musical whore."

Ouch.

Well, I'm a little easier on the guy. I saw him singing "When Joanna Loved Me" on the Johnny Carson "Tonight Show" years ago and was hooked. By the time he got around to doing the MTV Unplugged album, I was a full-blown fan.

But today I heard him singing Duke Ellington's "Solitude," a live track from some concert back there in the mists of time. Man, is this good stuff or what?

In my solitude, you haunt me...

There is an erudite intelligence to these so-called standards that doesn't exist in popular music anymore. Course, one could argue that popular music, in its purest sense, disappeared years ago. Come on, you can't really name one Britney Spears song, can you?

(Oops. I did it again.)

I remember Billie Holiday's version of "Solitude" and think that Bennett does a pretty good job of holding his own. Nobody's as good as Billie (maybe Sinatra), but the fact that you can listen to Bennett's version and actually accept the cover for what it is says something. (It's on a collection called "Tony Bennett/Jazz" in case you're curious.)

I downloaded an album on iTunes back of this that features Bennett on vocals and the great Bill Evans on piano. It's a mighty fine album, even if iTunes screwed me out of three or four tracks due to some electronic glitch.

My favorite tune is "Some Other Time," mainly because Evans kicks off the piano lead in eerily similar fashion to his classic performance on Miles Davis's "Flamenco Sketches." In all fairness to Bennett, his voice is wistful on this track, weary, as if he's reached the end of the road and just wants to sit awhile.

His pipes and Evans's piano are a lethal combination. Don't listen to that album if you've got a touch of the blues, though.

It's a rainy day today, alas, and I can't take the sad songs for long when it gets like this. Back to work.

Oh, well, we'll catch up some other time...