Photo by Robert Bobber
By Howard Reich Listeners don't usually think of the enormous Auditorium Theatre
as an intimate space, but it certainly became one over the weekend.
From Sidewalks by Rick Kogan and Charles Osgood
Saloff's Brilliance Matches the Magic at Auditorium Theatre
Chicago Tribune
arts critic
Published June 18, 2007
With the exceptional Chicago singer Spider
Saloff onstage, and her audience – seated at café tables – right there onstage with her, the grand
old venue suddenly was transformed.
Everyone, in other words, had come together under the Auditorium
proscenium on Saturday night for the launch of this year's "On Stage With \…" cabaret series. For the
capacity audience, this meant watching Saloff perform at the edge of the stage, with her back to the house,
her silhouette framed by the hundreds of glittering little bulbs that dotted the auditorium behind her.
If
there's a more magical space in Chicago in which to savor ultra-sophisticated jazz singing, this listener has yet
to encounter it.
The glamorous ambience wouldn't count for much, though, if the musicmaking weren't on a
comparable level. But after Saloff's unconvincing performance two years ago at the Green Mill, where she
inexplicably over-emoted and oversold her repertoire, one wondered if she would go overboard in such a spectacular
setting.
To the contrary, she cut back on the hard sell and the let the natural voluptuousness of her voice
and intelligence of her lyric reading tell the story. In so doing, Saloff returned to form, reclaiming her place
among the country's most adept jazz vocalists.
Few singers today, for instance, dispatch music of Billy
Strayhorn with comparable lushness of tone and elasticity of phrase. The shades of light and half-light she
brought to Strayhorn's "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing" reflected a profound understanding of the subtlety of
Strayhorn's work. Every syllable that Saloff sang carried dramatic meaning; every improvised note had tonal
weight and substance.
Saloff drew much of the evening's repertory from her most recent recording, "Like
Glass," delivering the title cut and other originals with obvious confidence in her deepening achievements
as songwriter.
Throughout, she benefited greatly from the lithe accompaniment of Steve Ramsdell on
guitar and the airborne solos of Zach Brock, one of the most promising and versatile young violinists in jazz.
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