Suzanne Vega at the Allen Room-American Song Book Deluxe

February 1, 2010 · Posted in Arts & Entertainment, Buzz, People, Q on Stage

Suzanne Vega - photo by Mary Rozzi

Suzanne Vega is the consummate city dweller. She’s the woman you want to meet for coffee for her terse and pithy observations of the world and its players, as they shift and part around us, as we are boulders in the river of humanity that flows around us. And that humanity flowed as the evening began on January 28, as part of the American Songbook series, 2010 edition.

Vega has been playing with two equally talented musicians, and the work that she does with Gerry Leonard on guitar and Michael Visceglia on bass amounts to texture, sound, voice and skill, which elevates each to his or her most amazing. Accompanied by the Brooklyn-based String Quartet of Light and Sound, there were interplays of texture and an urban sound wall that complemented the urban sight wall behind Vega.

The Allen Room is situated on the fifth-plus floor of the Time Warner Building on Columbus Circle in the Jazz at Lincoln Center complex. There is a window wall that provides the backdrop for the musicians as we gaze at the diamonds, rubies and emeralds of the lights, stretching toward the East Side. It is a very gracious space in which to share intimate secrets, as Vega takes us into her confidence to share the secrets of the City she loves.

The first part of the set included “Marlene (on the Wall),” fraught with contemplation and spurring memories for us all of when we’ve given our goods away too soon, followed closely by “Small Blue Thing,” which has the capacity to be whatever we need it to be-at points the small blue thing is in a pocket among the lint, is hard and self-contained, could be the psyche, but is wonderful in its evocative charm. “Caramel” is bluesy and sexy and a wistful, twistful should-I-take-the-plunge-knowing-I-can’t-go-slowly? Considering these first three songs will be on Vega’s new release, in a week or so, of the songs she considers Love songs, I already know what my partner will be getting for Valentine’s Day. “Frank and Ava” describes the person in our past, or present, whom we can’t live with, or without. The fight Vega sings about in the song happened to have occurred close to where we sat, and she said it was a particular thrill for her to relate the story so close to where it happened.

There was an arc next that included “New York is a Woman”, “Pornographer’s Dream” and “Undertow,” which together and separately were a treat, as they gynopomorphize NYC into a woman who always knows what she wants, how to get it and, as Vega says, isn’t hurt when you forget to say goodbye, as she’s already moved on.

Through “Gypsy,” a song a teenaged Vega wrote for another camp counselor, we see the nascent foundation of the sharp intellect beginning to form. Through the bluesy and longing “Harbor Song,” we can feel the freshening winds of change, and in “Headshots”, a quintessential city experience is elevated, from the threshold of the notice-then-ignore-cycle of advertisements and flyers that crowd one another for our attention, to become a stalker or a friend, who follows us around certain parts of the city, wherever we see the face and the number appear in surprising places.

“Tombstone” was one of the most upbeat pieces and was followed by “Left of Center,” where it was exclusively Vega with bass player Visceglia, the moody thread of contemplation ends on a thrumming harmonic-how long do we continue to feel it after the last bit of note no longer vibrates the ear drum? “Blood Makes Noise” brought us back inward, followed by a paean to Picasso, “The Man Who Played God,” which celebrates the deconstructionist, who shows us life more clearly, when depicting a girl as a flower, or exploding pieces and elements to re-arrange them as so different from nature, that they show nature that much more clearly. Vibrations from the blood and disorder and order from the brain are continuing to move in cycles. “Queen and the Soldier” rounded out this section of the show and left us contemplating what happens when we move out of the cycles others have set, or what happens when we are afraid to do that as well.

Light and Sound String Quartet returned for “Maggie May,” Vega’s reflection on Rod Stewart’s early career hit, highlighting that Maggie is leaving her lover before he can leave her, and sometimes that is the best way for people to learn the lessons they need. Earlier in the day, Vega had performed the song live on NPR and it has a great deal to say about relations between lovers-what’s right to say outwardly and what’s best kept within. “Some Journey” is the song to have on your i-Pod when you’re putting together travel music-driving, taking the train or bus across country, this is the perfect song for when you’re traveling through a small town, late at night, looking into people’s kitchens and living rooms and noting the special, every day aspects of their small towns. It’s the sound track of rolling through the nice and less-nice parts of town on your way to what life is bringing next. “Luka” brings us back to the heart of the City and “Tom’s Diner” works its stream of consciousness way through waiting thoughts-”does she see me? No, she sees her own reflection”-and so much of non-waiting thoughts are colored by this observation as well. Light and Sound creates a silk curtain of sound behind Vega with backbeat by bass, then joined by guitar, then finished with a bravura dissonance that’s almost like the traffic encountered when running for the train.

The final song of the evening was the lush “Rosemary,” with it’s gorgeous bluegrass-y, city-folk story of meeting someone and experiencing the magic of limerance in that moment when you’re learning one another, never knowing what tomorrow will bring. It ends with “…all I ask is you remember me” and I speak for the entire audience when I say we will. Suzanne Vega’s album “Close-Up Vol. 1 Love Songs” will be available for download on February 2 and available for purchase February 9, just in time for your Valentine. If you live in the City, if you love the City, if you love in the City, this Vega’s for you.

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