By Marilyn Lester***Kicking off Jazz Appreciation Month (April), the “Jazzy Italian,” Vanessa Racci, traveled back in time, creating an evocative Speakeasy vibe at Chelsea Table + Stage. With the singer in period costume, it was easy to believe we were back in the 1920s with her swinging show, Prohibition Jazz Nights. The jazz and pop recording 
artist created a fun throwback with a modern twist, featuring Songbook classics from the 1920s and 30s that have aced the test of time. Opening with class and sass, Racci offered a groovin’ “At the Jazz Band Ball” (Nick LaRocca,Larry Shields), a 1917 jazz standard instrumental, with lyrics set to it in 1950 by Johnny Mercer.
Therein followed a year-by-year musical tour of Prohibition, which started in 1918 when Congress passed the 18th Amendment prohibiting the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages. That state of dryness was in effect from 1920 to 1933. Racci wasn’t alone on this delightful musical journey. Her band provided top-notch accompaniment in Glafkos Kontemeniotis (piano), Marcus McLaurine (bass) and Kenny Hassler (drums). Kontemeniotis, a hidden gem in the jazz/cabaret world, was given the opportunity to liberally showcase his talent in spotlight solos; his creative ideas were matched by an ethereal touch on the keys, delivered with elevating cosmic energy.
Smart arrangements brought the set of enduring century-old tunes neatly into the modern era. The Gershwin’s already somewhat syncopated “Fascinating Rhythm” (1922) was Latinized to great effect; and the seriously uptempo “I Got Rhythm” (1930) offered a superb bass feature for McLaurine. Props to Racci for including the verse to this tune (and others), a “luxury” not always extended to them by modern-day vocalists. Racci, adept at jazz phrasing, well-handled scat in a couple of numbers, including “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love, Baby”, Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Field’s 1928 hit when the pair were riding high at the Cotton Club and on Broadway.
There was a bluesy touch to Showboat‘s 1927 smash “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” (now mostly written as “That” replacing “Dat”) by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II. In the balladic treatment of 1931’s “As Time Goes By” (Herman Hupfeld), Racci revealed a slight nasality in her smooth vocal tone. Listen carefully and there’s a hint of the same quality that marks Barbra Streisand’s deliveries.
A rousing penultimate tune, Cole Porter’s enduring 1932 number, “Night and Day,” had an effective and beautifully-executed drum introduction by Hassler, reminiscent of Gene Krupa’s driving intro to “Sing, Sing, Sing” (Louis Prima). Racci ended with a mid-tempo beat on a tune that expressed her philosophy of how to deal with life, especially one hundred years on from the Prohibition era: returning almost to the beginning of that Congressional miscalculation, she sang, with verse, 1922’s “Stairway to Paradise” (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Buddy DeSylva). Wrapping up a joyful and informative show, who could dispute the message of the refrain: “I’ll build a stairway to Paradise/With a new step every day.”
