Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The cabaret singer Barbara Fasano releases a collection that features selection from the Great American songbook of classics as well as her covers of pop songs delivered with her recognizable purr that has won her fans worldwide.

None other than Roy Sander of the prestigious Bistro Awards wrote, "With her fluent musical vocabulary and sharp interpretive skill, Wendy Scherl illuminates and invigorates every song she sings." Her new Harbinger Records album, "You'll See," marks Wendy's return to performing after taking an eighteen-year break to raise her two boys. After her appearances at New York's premier clubs like BB King's, Don't Tell Mama, The Triad, The Metropolitan Room, and the Laurie Beechman Theatre, this Metro Star Search award-winner has returned to radiant reviews. Of this new release, David Friedman wrote, "Wendy never stopped singing, never stopped studying, never stopped honing her art. She's back, voice more beautiful than ever, singing with all the warmth and wisdom and humor that only a life well and fully lived can bring." And "You'll See" is the perfect showcase for Wendy's myriad talents. Produced by multi-MAC Award winner Barry Kleinbort and backed by a swinging eight-piece band led by the brilliant Christopher Denny, she sings the cream of American Popular Song. Wendy graces the music and lyrics of such songwriting giants as "Irving Berlin, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Marvin Hamlisch, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, and others. She even ventures into Bob Dylan, Rusty Magee, and William Finn lending her talents to create unique interpretations of both music and lyrics. "You'll See" marks a return of a singular talent who's work shines with clarity and emotion.

The New Yorker Magazine said of Sara Zahn's Leonard Bernstein tribute, "To call it the best musical theatre in town is an understatement." None other than Rex Reed proclaims: "It takes a classic singer to do justice to the classic songs of a classic composer. That's why I can think of no one more qualified to capture and honor the musical legacy of Leonard Bernstein in his centennial year than Sara Zahn."Harbinger Records is pleased to announce the long-awaited follow-up to Sara Zahn's previous release: Witch Craft: The Songs of Carolyn Leigh. That album was a smash hit with over 3,000 albums sold. Now Sara Zahn is back with another brilliant composer tribute. Leonard Bernstein was a giant of both the concert stage and Broadway. His songs are perfectly complimented by Sara's richly expressed singing. Sara Zahn is known internationally as a performer, recording artist and ASCAP songwriter, having written more than 200 songs for film and television. She has performed her solo acts to enthusiastic audiences in countries and venues as varied as Club Soda in Montreal, Canada, the Berkshire Theater Festival in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and the renowned opera house, Teatro Liceu, in Barcelona, Spain. She is the recipient of the Manhattan Association of Cabaret (MAC) Hanson Award as Outstanding Performer, and a Back Stage Bistro Award as Outstanding Vocalist. Sara has headlined throughout the years at Manhattan's top cabaret and jazz clubs, including Rainbow and Stars, The Metropolitan Room, Eighty-Eight's and The Russian Tea Room, and performed an unprecedented three-month engagement at Michael's Pub. Stephen Holden, in his rave review in The New York Times, wrote: "In a strong voice, Ms. Zahn sang everything with a clarity, assurance and measured passion that never got in the way of the material."

Classical Music

Sharon Paige broke into show business in her teens as a singing and dancing chorus girl and moved quickly to featured roles. She has traveled throughout the United States and Canada, performing in the national companies of Broadway and Off Broadway musicals. Sharon has also toured the summer-tent, dinner-theater and nightclub circuits. In 2008, she and Keith Ingham released their Ned Washington tribute album, Love Is the Thing; Burke Beautiful is their second collaboration. Sharon currently resides and sings in New York City. Keith Ingham has recorded extensively and worked with Benny Goodman and other bands. He wrote the arrangements and led an all-star group of musicians on three notable Maxine Sullivan recordings for Harbinger Records. The first, “Maxine Sullivan Sings Great Songs from the Cotton Club by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler,” was nominated for a Grammy Award. He and Maxine also collaborate on Harbinger albums devoted to the music of Jule Styne and burton Lane. Keith was also arranger and leader on the classic Peggy Lee recording, “Love Held Lightly,” also for Harbinger Records. Johnny Burke was one of America’s greatest composer/lyricists. He enjoyed a long collaboration with James V. Monaco and then Jimmy McHugh writing songs for films, shows, and such singers as Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.

In 1979 Geraldine Fitzgerald (1913-2005), the legendary Broadway and Hollywood star, did something she had never done before: she began singing in her own cabaret act-Streetsongs-and the New York critics raved. Wrote Rex Reed: "Leaves audiences screaming with applause." Her cabaret led to a PBS special, a long run at New York's Roundabout Theatre, an evening at the White House for President Jimmy Carter, and a tour to Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The present release features the original cast of Streetsongs.

Composer Harvey Schmidt and his writing partner, Tom Jones, created some of our most iconic musicals. Their first, "The Fantasticks", is a perfect musical and one of the most performed pieces in the United States and throughout the world. The team of Jones & Schmidt also wrote the smash hit "I Do! I Do!" as well as "Celebration" and a host of others. But what many people don't know is that in addition to being a wonderful composer and a professional visual artist as well, Schmidt was a brilliant pianist with his own inimitable style. Which brings us to "Merry Xmas 1975". The title tells it all: it's an audio Christmas card! Schmidt played solo piano on a variety of songs from the Golden Age of Hollywood and Broadway. Originally released on LP as a gift to lucky friends of his, the record has been a collectors' item for decades, and now, with the late composer's approval and encouragement, it can be enjoyed and savored by everyone. Don't be fooled by the title, though. There is just one bona fide Christmas standard, Hugh Martin's perennial hit, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," introduced by the radiant Judy Garland in M-G-M's Meet Me in St. Louis. But there are many, many more terrific songs by the masters of the Great American Songbook: Everyone from Cole Porter to Rodgers & Hammerstein, from George and Ira Gershwin to Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown. DeSylva, Brown and Henderson share grooves with Harry Warren. It's a delightful grouping of unforgettable music.

Songs old and new, standards and rarities, all make up this delightful new album for the Christmas season. A quartet of New York cabaret favorites led by the legendary Steve Ross sing their way through some of the oldest carols as well as some of the newest. It's Almost Christmas Eve is a nostalgic, cozy, smart, sophisticated and sometime even wistful journey through the Great American Songbook. Here you'll find great songs from Broadway and popular song favorites including Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Stephen Sondheim, Jule Styne, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Charles Strouse, Cy Coleman, Sammy Fain, E.Y. Harburg, Carolyn Leigh and also Richard Maltby and David Shire. Plus a bevy of newer composers taking a crack at Christmas cheer and goodwill toward men.

Classical Music

In 1979 Geraldine Fitzgerald (1913–2005), the legendary Broadway and Hollywood star, did something she had never done before: she began singing in her own cabaret act—Streetsongs—and the New York critics raved. Wrote Rex Reed: “Leaves audiences screaming with applause.” Her cabaret led to a PBS special, a long run at New York’s Roundabout Theatre, an evening at the White House for President Jimmy Carter, and a tour to Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Fitzgerald described her streetsongs as “songs any of us might sing walking down the street,” and her program ranged from folk songs from her native Dublin and music hall songs from London to beloved tunes by the Beatles and George Gershwin. Fitzgerald was a singing actor. (“I have a strange voice,” she admitted, “but I know how to control it.,”) Critics compared her with Lotte Lenya and Marlene Dietrich. In 1983 her show was taped before a live audience at Cleveland’s Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival. Released on LP, the reviews of the album were once again sensational. “She fills the stage with lusty, warm-blooded vitality,” wrote John S. Wilson in The New York Times. Added Nat Hentoff in The Wall Street Journal: “She conjures up the rhythms of diverse people who have sung in the streets, in pubs and anywhere else a melody can no longer be contained.” Now, for the first time in 35 years, Streetsongs has been rereleased complete with Al Hirschfeld’s famous cover caricature and extensive liner notes. It’s an album no musical theater lover will want to miss.

This first reissue in 25 years of a classic Original Cast Recording is a must-have for discriminating lovers of musical theater. Written by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt (THE FANTASTICKS, 110 IN THE SHADE and I DO! I DO!), CELEBRATION was produced on Broadway in 1969 and is considered one of the most provocative and entertaining musicals of the decade. Says Jones (now 92 and still writing for the stage): “CELEBRATION, along with HAIR, was one of the 1960s shows that sought to reinvent our musical theater...The score is rich and varied, the premise interesting and the characters and scenes funny and touching. I’m so grateful to Harbinger Records for wanting to share it with at least three generations!” In this battle between the Old Year and the New, Jones & Schmidt mixed symbolic figures with then-current prototypes. “Thus the Old Man typifies all the misgivings that the youth culture of the time had about the previous generation,” says Jones. “The Young Boy is the ultimate flower child. The Narrator is a sixties dropout who’s into booze and drugs. And the Girl is a teenybopper dreaming of being a celebrity.” The package contains a 24-album booklet with extensive notes by author Tom Jones; memories from two original-cast members, Susan Watson and Michael Glenn-Smith; and many recently unearthed photos of the original production. The album has been remastered by multiple Grammy Award winner Alan Silverman.

"Mr. Jenness, who passed away in 2017 at age 80, had a straightforward, unpretentious approach, which fondly put the spotlight on craft and moods of the songs, not on him as a performer. While singing was not his main occupation, and he doesn't have the most dazzlingly distinctive or resonant sound, there are some appealing and endearing qualities that make the listening rewarding beyond the satisfaction of hearing so many rare and rarified pieces. There's infectious joie de vivre in numbers like "Have Feet, Will Dance" (Burton Lane/ Dorothy Fields, from the TV musical Junior Miss) and the gleefully goofy "Gus the Gopher," an independent song with music and lyric by Sheldon Harnick. Serious and sad subject matter like the lamenting "Paris Is a Lonely Town" (Harold Arlen/ E.Y. Harburg, from the feline-focused animated Gay Purr-ee) doesn't hesitate to cue earnest, melancholy approaches, but doesn't sink into mopey morass … Accompaniment is uncluttered: the sturdy (but subtle when needed) piano work of Bert Dalton, sometimes joined by bass and percussion, never pulling focus or adding swaths of instrumental time … If you're looking for a big portion of high-quality theatrical treats from the 1930s to the 1960s to drink in and savor, with 26 samples provided by David Jenness, your cup will runneth over." -Rob Lester (Talkin' Broadway)

David Jenness (1937–2017) is best known as the co-author of the widely read and influential book "Classic American Song: The Second Half-Century, 1950–2000.” In it he explores the final work of the Masters and introduces us to songs written by the next generations of composers and lyricists who upheld the demanding criteria established by their forebears. But Jenness was also a cabaret singer held in the highest regard in Santa Fe clubs. Between 1993 and 1998 he made frequent visits to recording studios, preserving his performances of songs he held dear. He said, “I’ve always loved good songs from the theater and film. In my life I’ve been lucky enough to get to know some of the forgotten songs of songwriters and performers—the kind of songs that singers like to sing late at night during the last set or at a party, or the songs that songwriters have a sneaky love for. “There’s kind of a revival going on of cabaret and theater tunes from earlier eras. I wanted to get the ones I know and love down on tape, hoping you’ll like them, too.” Jenness, who passed away three years ago, only shared his recordings on cassettes with friends. This release marks the first chance all of us have to appreciate a warm, understated vocal style that always honored the songwriters’ intent. He’s accompanied by piano or a tasty jazz trio. And the hall-of-fame songwriters include Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Arlen & Koehler, Kern & Hammerstein, Rodgers & Hart, Lane & Loesser, Ellington & Latouche, Hugh Martin and Stephen Sondheim. This album is nirvana for all lovers of vintage American popular song—especially those who want to be introduced to rarely heard (or completely unknown) material courtesy of Jenness’s marvelous interpretations.