Keeping Standards High // In Chicago, Come to the Cabaret For 1st-Class Venues and Singers

Let's state this up front: Some people don't believe that there is acabaret scene to speak of in Chicago.

"It's dead, very dead, let's face it," said cabaret star AndreaMarcovicci, darling of New York's Algonquin Hotel, before her benefitshow at the Fairmont Hotel last week. "There are no hotels inChicago that present cabaret on an ongoing basis.

"And how fair is it to your followers to play little rooms likethe Gold Star Sardine Bar, where they can only get in 30 people anight?"In fact, seating at the Gold Star is more like 50. But howevermany people can be squeezed in, numbers aren't the best basis forcomparing the two cities' treatment of cabaret - in which the musicof Cole Porter and Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Jerome Kern,Harold Arlen and Stephen Sondheim is performed in intimate settingsby stylish singers.There are, to be sure, more cabaret artists of note in the BigApple, and more recordings released by them than their Windy Cityequivalents. But in preserving and even advancing this special formof popular music, Chicagoans more than hold their own.With the likes of Audrey Morris, Spider Saloff, Eden Atwood,Patricia Barber, Frank D'Rone, Jackie Allen, Lisa Lauren and NanMason, there is no shortage of talented singers here. And for allthe fame and Manhattan allure of clubs such as the Algonquin's OakRoom, there are at least as many first-class cabaret venues inChicago as in New York."For a singer, this is the only place to be," said Gold Starregular Eden Atwood, who lived in New York and has worked on bothcoasts. "Los Angeles is a cultural wasteland. There are only twoclubs where you can get steady work. In New York, you can playTavern on the Green, which is great, but then no one else will bookyou for six months."Chicago's steady cabaret venues, in addition to the Gold StarSardine Bar, include the Toulouse Cognac Room, Yvette Wintergardenand Yvette. Then there are equally enjoyable but less regular spacessuch as the Fairmont Hotel's Metropole Lounge, the Palmer House'sEmpire Room, Pops for Champagne and the Bop Shop."Chicago is a wonderful city for cabaret," said New York cabaretlegend Julie Wilson, who started out here in the 1940s in a burlesqueshow at the old Oriental Theater and has regularly returned in recentyears to perform her songbooks. "The audiences are spectacular.""Chicago has that charm that New York had in the '50s when thenightclub scene was really happening," said Saloff, who on Thursdayopened a long run at the Toulouse Cognac Bar, where she will appearThursdays through Saturdays through May 11."People know their music, which they can go out and enjoy on aregular basis without paying exorbitant covers. In New York, you pay$45 just to walk in the door."Though the Gold Star has abandoned its much-publicized no-coverpolicy, it still only charges $5 on Thursdays, when Atwood regularlyappears, and $7 on Fridays and Saturdays. There is no cover atYvette Wintergarden and Yvette, and at Toulouse Cognac Bar coversusually range from $3 to $5 but rise to $10 or more for big-namenational talent.Cabaret is easily enough defined by elegance, wit,sophistication, intimacy and romanticism. But not all singers whoembrace those qualities, and the Great American Songbook, qualify ascabaret artists.Even in a rare small setting, Tony Bennett has too much belcanto training and star power to qualify. Ditto for show bizzyMichael Feinstein, who needs cheap seats to reach even when there arenone. Patricia Barber helped launch the Gold Star with an eight-yearresidency, but her introspective intensity and jazz pianism removeher from strict cabaret standards.Artists without obvious cafe society trappings can qualify forcabaret membership. Take singer-pianist Lenny Capp, an unsungveteran of easy-listening jazz whose 40-year resume includes jobs indefunct Rush Street rooms such as Mister Kelly's and restaurantlounges including the old Four Torches on Clark and Armitage.Capp has the lived-in looks and straightforward personality ofthe hardworking veteran he is. But his skillful and appealingrendering of standards and his warmly individual piano style make hima welcome fixture in any cabaret. "I have no problem with that(cabaret artist) tag," he said.And there are other variations within the genre - includingregional ones."New York is influenced most strongly by the musical theater,"said Audrey Morris, whose spare emotion and deep personal imprintmake her the city's highest-ranking cabaret veteran. "In Chicago,most of us find ourselves some place between theater and jazz,floating out there without a name to call what we do. Because ofthat, I think the music is more interesting here."In cabaret, because it is performed in small rooms, singer andaudience are bonded by an intimacy that exists in no other form ofpopular entertainment."People come in search of a more romantic time, when peopleweren't ashamed of inner feelings," said Morris. "They long for aquieter approach. They want to hear the lyrics."The closeness breeds the best kind of familiarity: Given thechance to see singers on a regular basis in Chicago, listenersdevelop ongoing relationships with them - and their material. Suchare the bottomless riches of songs such as Porter's "Night and Day,"Gershwin's "Love is Here to Stay" and Irving Berlin's "How Deep isthe Ocean?" that they can reveal new emotions and attitudes eachtime they're sung.In some cases, the relationships between audience and artistbecome personal. "People follow my life," said Marcovicci, who livesin Los Angeles. "They brought baby presents (after she gave birthlast year to her daughter, Alice) and want to see new baby picturesevery time they see me."Whether or not those kinds of connections are present, thecabaret experience is defined as much by listeners - in the songsthey love, the clothes they wear, the drinks they order - asperformers."I love seeing the twentysomething crowd come in in blackcocktail dresses and nightclub attire," said Saloff, noting a recentincrease in young listeners. "And the drinks are pretty andglamorous - lots of martinis and cognac and cocktails."In recent years, following the shuttering of the late andlamented George's, a stylish restaurant near the Merchandise Martwhere jazz and cabaret thrived, Chicago cabaret and the Gold StarSardine Bar were very nearly synonymous.The very idea of this tiny venue in the 680 N. Lake Shorebuilding - former site of the Furniture Mart - bringing in glitzynightclub stars and charging no admission created a buzz that stillrings in the ears of visiting travel writers, years after it openedin 1983.Here is a place with both chichi appeal (artists including BobbyShort, now one of the Gold Star's three owners, are introduced inFrench) and anti-snob features (including White Castle burgers on themenu). Founder Bill Allen fed the hype with audacious gambits suchas cramming a 34-piece orchestra into the room to back suitably smallLas Vegas singer Pia Zadora.The Gold Star's reputation remains intact. But its inability,financially and otherwise, to hang onto the likes of Wilson andSaloff and book other big names has resulted in its losing thunder tothe beautifully appointed, jewel-like Toulouse Cognac Bar on LincolnPark West.Whichever Chicago cabaret calls itself the toast of the town,the music is reaching out to bigger - and younger - audiences."People have been calling it a dying art form for years," Wilsonsaid. "But it's still here, and getting stronger in my opinion,spreading out, because there's nothing that can replace it. Whereelse can you experience the same kinds of feelings?""It's the only music that has retained lyricism and romance,instead of that very angry thing you hear so much in pop music," saidAtwood, who is recording her third album for the Concord Jazz label."Sometimes, when there are too many people yakking in the audience,about the stock market or whatever, I get angry. I try to hold it inand try to teach them how to listen."When you get everyone in a certain spirit, and they're hangingon your every word and you're feeding off their interest, it'sincredibly gratifying. At times like that, you know there is noother kind of music you'd rather be involved in."