Lucy Yeghiazaryan was celebrating her birthday at Mezzrow on West Tenth Street at the very end of January. She turned 29 on the 29th, a gentle embrace of the spheres. But don’t let her youth fool you into thinking she is merely skating along on the surface of her songs: she feels the music. . . . when she sings of passions, it doesn’t sound as if she’s texting us a message. And she doesn’t stand at an ironic distance from the song and view it skeptically as an ancient artifact.
Lucy at Mezzrow 1.28.20. Photograph by Jon De Lucia.
At her performance, she created many little worlds, inhabited by cats and rabbits, with plates of mashed potatoes, among other bits of set design, but her intense yet controlled reading of PRISONER OF LOVE left me open-mouthed (and, no, that wasn’t my sneeze you’ll hear). I associate this highly-charged song with Russ Columbo, Perry Como, and Lester Young — his 1956 recording remains a touchstone for me — but Lucy gently moved into the song and made it completely hers, with lovely accompaniment from Stefan Vasnier, piano; Greg Ruggiero, guitar; Vince Dupont, string bass. Join me in the experience:
I’ve written about Lucy here recently, but you can expect to see more of her work on this blog. And you should bask in the emotional experiences she creates — some salty, some tender, some playful — first-hand. Or if you live far from her gigging orbit, her first CD is available here and all the usual places. (Thanks to Matt Rivera for making this encounter not only possible but inevitable.)
She’s the real thing.
May your happiness increase!
JAZZ LIVES 