Susie Meissner At The Metropolitan Room

I am very grateful to the inventors of the DVR, because while the entire world was watching the season premiere of Mad Men last night, I was enjoying a marvelous Jazz performance at the Metropolitan Room at 34 West 22^nd Street. The featured vocalist Susie Meissner, was accompanied by six of the top musicians in the jazz world, Joe Magnarelli on trumpet, Greg Riley on sax, Tim Horner on drums, Lee Smith on bass and musical director John Shaddy on piano. Ms. Meissner has a voice that I would describe as the SWEET SOUND of jazz singing. She sounds great when she is swinging but her voice works especially well when she is doing a ballad as displayed last night with her work on Hoagy Carmichael’s Skylark.

The show last night opened with a swinging version of Jerome Kern’s All the Things You Are that set the tone for the rest of the evening. Miss Meissner’s song selection contained many of the best songs in the great American Songbook. Highlights included Cole Porter’s You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To, with excellent solos by Joe Manarelli and Greg Riley. Ms. Meissner did a wonderfully beautiful version of Jobim’s Meditation. Her up-tempo performance of How Deep is the Ocean, was a unique and successful take on the classic Irving Berlin ballad. Her closing number Day by Day was in an interesting tempo aided and abetted by some amazing drum mastery by Tim Horner.  Ms. Meissner is definitely in the top tier of today’s female jazz singers