Gina Vivinetto curates our Sunday night show featuring rockers doing the American Songbook

One of the things I love about running the Palladium is hatching plots with talented people. The latest one developed over a Kahwa coffee with my friend and former newspaper colleague, Gina Vivinetto. Like me, Gina is a musician and a writer – and lately a teacher at University of Tampa.

 

We also share a love for the songs from the Great American Songbook – Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart and a few dozen other greats.

 

Why not get some of our favorite Tampa Bay musicians – who are more associated with rock and pop – to cover these songs? That idea became a show – curated by Gina – that is happening this Sunday night in the Side Door Cabaret.

 

But let me get out of the way and let Gina tell you about it:

 

 

I first fell in love with the tunes of the Great American Songbook as a kid. My parents were big fans of the old crooners – Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett –and even bigger fans of lady jazz singers like Dinah Washington and Ella Fitzgerald. I vividly remember mom and dad, both terrific singers, belting out “If I Were A Bell” with Dinah as it played on the stereo.

 

In high school, I was always pleasantly surprised to find a friend who knew the lyrics to Rodgers and Hart’s “The Lady Is A Tramp” or Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes.”  I remember spending an afternoon with a friend dissecting Porter’s “You’re the Top.” We were just knocked out by that song, especially the part that goes:

 

You’re the top! You’re Mahatma Gandhi.

You’re the top! You’re Napoleon brandy.

You’re the purple light of a summer night in Spain.

You’re the National Gallery, you’re Garbo’s salary,

You’re cellophane!

 

You’re cellophane! We mused. Because cellophane was new back when ol’ Cole wrote the tune. We thought it was genius.

 

By the time I was in college, I was buying all the albums for myself. By then, I was playing in bands of my own and once in a while I’d come across another young musician who either grew up on those great standards or came across them in, say, a musical theater class.

 

Then in 1990, came the AIDS benefit compilation Red Hot + Blue. The concept was so simple: get some of the hottest acts of the day to reinterpret Cole Porter tunes. U2 did an edgy “Night And Day.” Hip hop star Neneh Cherry completely deconstructed “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.” Annie Lennox and Sinead O’Connor sang sublime renditions of “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye” and “You Do Something To Me.” True to his roots, punk icon Iggy Pop partnered up with Blondie’s Debbie Harry performing a raucous “Well, Did You Evah!” Still, Iggy Pop!? Fans old and young were treated to a side of our rock stars we’d never glimpsed before.

 

That, in a nutshell, is what Sunday night’s Hardbound show is all about. Two dozen local musicians, some scene vets and some newer artists, will put their unique spins on these great songs right here in the Side Door lounge at the Palladium. You’ll hear pop rockers The Ditchflowers, whose members include Brian Merrill, Ed Woltil and Steve Connelly, cover Irving Berlin. Rumor has it that Skully, featuring powerhouse singer Natty Moss Bond, are going to make a lil’ whoopee. The showcase also includes singer-guitarists Bob Anthony and Dean Johanesen as well as newcomers Nathalia Estrada and No Milk, a solo electronica artist. (Ever wonder how Gershwin would sound done by a solo electronica artist?)

 

Talented performers playing timeless classics. What a swell party, indeed. This is one you don’t want to miss.

 

See you Sunday!

 

Gina