By Andrew Poretz***The sizzling performer Carole J. Bufford returned to Birdland Theater for a three-night run with her latest show, Daring Dames of the Silver Screen, accompanied by music director-pianist Ian Herman, bassist 
Jerry DeVore and drummer Daniel Glass; the arrangements were co-written by Bufford and Herman. She’s a performer with a commanding stage presence who consistently delivers thoughtful, powerful performances, with well-written and interesting narrative, and with a voice of beauty and power.
Looking like an Erté etching come to life, the Georgia native, a self-described small town gal, found that the glamorous film stars she watched growing up were her window to the rest of the world. In this well-researched show, Bufford anecdotally tied the songs to the glamorous stars she learned from, including the likes of Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross and Meryl Streep.
The diva opened with “Queen Bee” (Rupert Holmes), introduced by Barbra Streisand in A Star is Born. Her voice, well-suited to bluesy torch songs, was especially agile on “I’d Rather Be Blue Over You (Than Be Happy with 
Somebody Else)” (Billy Rose, Fred Fisher) sung by Fanny Brice in the 1928 musical film My Man. Addressing the history of the very popular song and dance team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Bufford performed an exciting and dynamic arrangement of “Let Yourself Go” (Irving Berlin) acknowledging its origin as a dance composition.
A highlight of the set was her insightful segment about the legendary Lena Horn, with a stellar medley of “Stormy Weather ” (Harold Arlen, Ted Koehler) and “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” (Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II), with a bold finish. Bufford, who grew up constantly hearing the legendary Judy Garland’s live album, Judy at Carnegie Hall, at the Bufford home, killed on a rendition of “By Myself” (Arthur Schwartz, Howard Dietz), which strongly evoked the Nelson Riddle arrangement heard in Garland’s television series, “The Judy Garland Show.”
The star dug deep to pay homa
ge to Billie Holiday with the relatively obscure “Gimme a Pigfoot” (Wesley Wilson, with Coot Grant), which Bufford first heard when Diana Ross performed it in Lady Sings the Blues. She also related the somewhat stunning trivia that the (white) Ava Gardner had been offered the part of Billie Holiday in a Holiday biopic. (In the 1951 film adaptation of Show Boat, Gardner famously played the role of Julie La Verne, who is part Black .)
About the recently-deceased Diane Keaton, the singer extolled her quirky style, which paved the way for stars like Meg Ryan. Keaton, who had a wonderful and understated singing voice, notably ended the film Annie Hall with a surprisingly beautiful “Seems Like Old Times (John Jacob Loeb, Carmen Lombardo). Bufford sang the entire song accompanied solely by Herman’s gentle playing, the lights low, evoking the simple beauty of Keaton’s rendition. She brought the energy back up with “Le Jazz Hot” (Henry 
Mancini, Leslie Bricusee), with its unmistakable Mancini riffs.
The Great Depression song, “Ten Cents a Dance” (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart), originally written for the 1930 musical Simple Simon, made it into three movies: sung by Barbara Stanwyck in the 1931 film of the same name; by Doris Day in Love Me or Leave Me (1955) and Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989). Bufford sang the obscure verse (not sung in any of the films), which sets up the underlying tragedy of the story. She closed out the set with a bluesy “I’m Checkin’ Out” (Shel Silverstein), introduced by Meryl Streep in Postcards From the Edge, and sang a sweet encore of “Over the Rainbow” (Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg), which also included the verse.
Photos by Andrew Poretz
