Simply ‘De-Lovely” Concert Review

After a rained out concert, the Cabaret on the Canal brought back sunshine to the city as Shannon Forsell took center stage. Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies” classic featured Forsell’s meticulous voice that cut through each note like a knife to butter. The audience simply melted into the jazz mood. Tom Nichols accompanied Forsell on percussion and Ray Lahrman on keyboard. As big and bold as Forsell’s voice was, it did not take the complete spotlight.

Lahrman was easily noticed through his perfect walking bass lines and his vibrant musical interpretations particularly in “Fly me to the Moon”. You would have never known that his primary focus at IU was saxophone and not the piano. He began playing the piano when he was three years old, mostly by ear. Thanks to his Grandma for pushing him to play in church, he quickly learned the piano and shared his talent for the entire city to enjoy. Lahrman is a shining jazz pianist whose musicianship was not only easy to recognize, but made a performance equally memorable.

A Gershwin classic, the audience was visibly pleased when Forsell launched into “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess. The song highlighted the drummer Tom Nichols as he kept a perfect jazz swaying 4/4 tempo. It is no surprise that this perfectly composed song turned into a jazz standard in the 1930’s. She also shared the spotlight with a local legend whose career spans over five decades.

Jimmy Guilford has performed with international figures such as Etta Jones and Ray Charles, and it certainly showed. His voice was a sweet surprise as he easily maneuvered around jazz standards demonstrating the depth of his musicianship especially when Forsell and Guilford sang “Blue Skies” in a duet. Guilford brought out the classic gravelly jazz voice as he dug in deep into the notes. Together, their voices complemented each other well. Forsell’s smooth notes were perfectly paired with the graininess of Guilford’s. When Guilford sang in the band “Ink Spots,” a friend of his had the opportunity to meet Louis Armstrong. Guilford learned how to find the raspy classic jazz voice from Armstrong himself, but it certainly helps that his passion and primary form of expression is music.

The highlight of the concert wasn’t Forsell’s typical forte, a selection from “Aida”, but rather “Blues in the Night” where she punched out passion with every lyric and gained the attention to those simply floating by in the boats on the canal. The group was perfectly in tandem and even when there was an elongated rest in the music, they took that opportunity to still speak to the audience – a very difficult task for any musician.

The Cabaret on the Canal proved that jazz was alive and well in Indiana, and left all wanting more.

See for yourself…
Jimmy Guilford will be singing at the Connoisseur Room on August 15th
Shannon Forsell will be singing at the Connoisseur Room on October 9th and 10th


by Tory Flynn