Home » Jazz Articles » Live Review » Michael Jefry Stevens: "Songbook"

105

Michael Jefry Stevens: "Songbook"

By

View read count
Michael Jefry Stevens
Cornelia Street Cafe
New York City
April 2000

Michael Jefry Stevens, a Brooklyn-based pianist with a taste for the avant-garde, has been pursuing a secret career as a jazz songwriter. That’s right: this Mark Whitecage-mentored purveyor of free improv has been building a stash of "songs with lyrics," on tried-and-true subjects like love and the blues, for the last twenty years. (Stevens credits Laura Arbuckle, Tania Lomnitz, and Kathleen Sannwald as his lyrical collaborators.) Shyness, he admits, is what kept him from going public with these songs until now. For precisely this reason, he’s got the ultra-extroverted singer Miles Griffith to belt them out for his debut "Songbook" concert. Playing Hammond organ, Stevens is also joined by Kevin McNeal on guitar and Rob Garcia on drums, both of whom bring buckets of good taste to bear on the material.
The group opens with "Red’s Blues," primarily a scat vehicle for Griffith. The fireplug of a vocalist brings a trumpet-like attack to the melody, then delivers a solo full of impeccable bop phrasing punctuated with growls, outlandish gibberish, and mic-distorting effects. Changing gears, the group moves on with "Safe In My Arms," a love ballad; "Jonathan Max," an up-tempo waltz dedicated to a newborn child; "Lost Love," an ode to heartbreak; and "Only Love," an R&B-tinged number that Stevens jokingly introduces as "the ladies’ choice." To close the set Griffith takes center stage for "Losing Streak," a slow, blues-based ditty with a priceless lyric: "You’re on a losing streak/ your shit’s about to freak." Griffith facilitates some hilarious audience participation, goading the house to repeat his wacked-out ad libs note for note, shriek for shriek.
Stevens and Griffith are perfect foils for one another: the leader’s deadpan stage demeanor is funny in its own right, but it’s even funnier next to Griffith’s over-the-top antics. The only risk is that some might find Griffith hard to take seriously on the sadder numbers. But that aside, Stevens has hit upon a winning combination that ought to get wider exposure.

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Jazz article: Downtown Tacoma Blues And Jazz Festival 2025
Jazz article: Bark Culture At Solar Myth
Jazz article: Hingetown Jazz Festival 2025

Popular

Read Take Five with Pianist Irving Flores
Read SFJAZZ Spring Concerts
Read Jazz em Agosto 2025
Read Bob Schlesinger at Dazzle
Read Sunday Best: A Netflix Documentary
Read Vivian Buczek at Ladies' Jazz Festival

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.