Debby Boone reviewed

From the The Columbus Dispatch: Pop singer lights up jazz standards and more
by Margaret Quamme, Saturday, September 24, 2005

Anyone thinking Debby Boone was a one-hit wonder would have been proved wrong by the singer's concert last night at the Southern Theatre with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra. Boone did - graciously and with more nuance than the original offered - sing her megahit, You Light Up My Life, as an encore for the evening. But before that point, she had demonstrated an impressive range with jazz standards.

Pop stars galore are releasing albums of vintage numbers from the American songbook, but Boone has both more right to do so and more success in the doing. Her concert and her latest album, Reflections of Rosemary, are dedicated to her late mother-in-law, Rosemary Clooney, with whom Boone frequently performed and who left her collection of song arrangements to Boone.

Clooney appeared at the concert in the form of a portrait placed lovingly on the piano and in an a cappella version of Blue Skies that she had recorded for one of Boone's four children. Boone's own version of Blue Skies took off in its own direction, paying homage to Clooney without slavishly imitating her style of singing. She caressed the words, giving each a full measure of attention but never hitting them too hard.

Her voice has deepened, but it still moves easily and fluidly through a large range, and it never seems strained.

Boone swept smoothly through several medleys, including a sophisticated series of songs by Johnny Mercer.

Her performance ranged from a wistful, subtle version of In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning to a playfully sexy You're Going to Hear from Me to an elegantly moving cover of The Music That Makes Me Dance.

A surprising highlight of the evening was Boone's version of Hanks Williams' I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry. Restraint and a slow tempo brought out the pain of the lyrics, while a touch of swing kept them from becoming maudlin.

She appeared thoroughly at ease with the orchestra, and the orchestra members with her. Artistic director Byron Stripling took the Chet Baker trumpet part in one number, and the arrangements offered plenty of opportunity for sax solos.

Throughout the concert, Boone collaborated rather than competed with the orchestra, and the result was a seemingly effortless pleasure.

The Columbus Jazz Orchestra opened the evening with a varied set, including a tribute to Duke Ellington and a playful improvisation by Stripling and Jim Masters on a song by Hoagy Carmichael.

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