Ruth Leon recommends…Bobby Short Live at Cafe Carlyle
Ruth Leon recommendsBobby Short Live at Cafe Carlyle
Bobby Short ‘invented’, perhaps ‘defined’ would be a better word, intimate cabaret for the New Yorkers of our own recent times. Urbane, elegant, perfectly groomed, he played the songs of the Great American Songbook at the Café Carlyle, at the Carlyle Hotel on Manhattan’s East Side. What started as a 2-week engagement lasted for more than 35 years.
Bobby Short’s audience was the carriage trade. He was just as grand as his audience and always struck me as trying to decide whether we, his adoring admirers, were good enough, elegant enough, well behaved enough, well dressed enough for him to perform for us. He attracted the top drawer of audience members, in this case Jack Lemmon and Lucie Arnaz.
The bassist is Beverly Peer and Robbie Scott is the drummer on this unusual live performance from the Café Carlyle. Thank you, Martin, for finding this for us.
Unique classic NY entertainer and to his credit, he never sang “nessun dorma”.
Thanks – one of the greats.
Back in the day I used to go there with some frequency.
I even got to know Bobby a bit.
Sadly, those elegant days of New York society have vanished for good.
Look at what we have today. Nothing compares.
His rendition of Cole Porter’s “Katie Went to Haiti” is a classic.