DIGITAL LINER NOTES - by Joe Regan, Jr., NYC
TERESE GENECCO: DRUNK WITH LOVE: A TRIBUTE TO FRANCES FAYE
Digital Liner Notes to the CD, released 04/25/07, on the BUG:OUT:MUSIC label.
~By Joe Regan, NYC, May 20, 2007
Here at last is a live performance recording to equal or surpass some of the great live cabaret performances of the past (including my own guilty pleasures, "Johnnie Ray in Las Vegas" and "Bobby Darin at the Copa").
ABOUT FRANCES FAYE
As a teenager, growing up in the Los Angeles area, I spent most of my money on records, on music that is now categorized as the "Great American Songbook" but was then the pop music of the late forties and fifties, before rock and roll crossed over into pop. There was a weekly local live TV program, "Juke Box Jury," hosted by local disc jockey Peter Potter, (whose wife was singer Beryl Davis). Each week he would play about four or five new releases and would ask a panel of four celebrities (sometimes including Stan Freberg, band leader Russ Morgan, various movie stars) "Will it be a hit or a miss?" A hit single would be one that sold 200,000 copies. Sometimes the artist would be back stage listening to the discussion of her or his record.
One night Peter Potter played a new Capitol Records release, a single of a Cole Porter standard, "Night and Day," performed by Frances Faye, done with what was then known as an Afro-Cuban beat with prominent bongo drum! Wow! I don’t think anyone had ever recorded this song as anything but a slow ballad. I rushed to my local record store and put in an order. At that time I was also reading weekly Variety and Billboard, and wrote a record review column for my high school paper. I raved about Miss Faye’s record in my column and bought every new Capitol single she recorded, as well as her first album "No Reservations". Some of the singles she recorded were never played on the radio because of the suggestive lyrics. I learned she was one of the great cabaret lounge performers, earning more than any other person on 52nd Street, and she frequently appeared in the Los Angeles clubs that I was too young to get into. And, of course, during that time, she made Los Angeles tabloid headlines in Hearst’s Herald Examiner for a marijuana bust!
While I was at Stanford the great Frances Faye live recording "Caught in the Act" was released and became the rage of the drama majors, especially for "Frances and Her Friends". It was not until the Seventies that I actually got to see Faye perform live...at Studio One, the classy premiere spot at a gay disco in West Los Angeles! She did not disappoint, wildly improvising, flirting with the audience and the musicians. On one of her last birthdays she did a live telephone interview with David Rothenberg on WBAI in New York, Rothenberg telling her how her fans still loved her and wanted news of her. There has never been anyone like her. She was the favorite of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack in Las Vegas, who regularly attended her shows after their performances.
A few years ago, I was in San Francisco for a Stanford reunion, and Michael Mascioli invited me to see an open mic show at the Purple Onion. I met Barry Lloyd there, and learned that he was working with a woman named Terese Genecco on a live Frances Faye show! Unfortunately, it was to happen a week after my departure. But Terese and Barry and their Little Big Band were booked to do the Mabel Mercer Foundation Cabaret Convention in the fall, and they were booked into a new cabaret room, The Encore, to perform the Frances Faye show. I went the first night, posted a rave review on the Yahoo Songbirds site and Stu Hamstra’s Cabaret Hotline Online, and told all my friends at the Cabaret Convention that this was the show that they could not afford to miss! It worked, the word of mouth spread, and for her final performance the crowd was backed up stairs to the sidewalk with people trying to get in!
What Terese does is unique. She does not imitate Faye, but she captures the spirit and excitement of Faye with superb musicians and charts "inspired" by Faye’s originals, which were, according to legend, "improvised" in the recording studio, including "Night and Day".
ABOUT TERESE GENECCO
A successful corporate insurance broker in the San Francisco Bay Area, Terese’s first love was music, and at the urging of two dear friends, she decided to look for a piano player and develop “an act.” In February of 2003, while searching for that piano player, she discovered an advertisement for the San Francisco Bay Area Cabaret Competition, and attended the first round of performances to investigate the proceedings. One week later, she was standing on a stage in front of audience and judges, singing the Lambert/Hendricks/Ross jazz classic, "Twisted," "Class" (from Chicago), and Billy Joel’s "New York State of Mind". She wrote her own introduction, which was read by the MC, and had the judges cracking up before she sang a note! Two of the judges spoke to her afterwards and encouraged her to find more material that would accommodate her big voice and her flair for comedy, and mentioned Frances Faye to her. Terese had never heard of Frances Faye, but she ordered Faye’s "Caught in the Act" LP, recently reissued on CD, from an online retailer, and was hooked as soon as she played it, especially how "out" Faye was about her sexuality in 1958! Terese learned the song "Drunk with Love" from the record and performed it at a showcase a few weeks later. The crowd went wild! She used it again in the semi-final round of the cabaret competition and, on June 10, 2003, she won her Debut category---and, in a huge upset, won "Entertainer of the Year" too!
Several months later, Terese was trying to come up with a theme show, discussing many ideas with her friend, singer Shaynee Rainbolt, but they kept coming back to Frances Faye. They found a new Internet site devoted to Faye, and, with the aid of Michael Mascioli, saw video footage of Faye, and were able to acquire rare LPs and CDs by Faye.
Terese did a thirty-minute showcase at the Purple Onion that September 2004, all from charts she had written herself, inspired by the recordings. The songs in the showcase were: "The Man I Love", "Drunk With Love", "Love For Sale", "I Ain’t Got Nobody", "There Will Never Be Another You", “You’re Heavenly,” and "Frances and Her Friends". The crowd again went wild and she was booked into the New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco for a five week run in their 2005 summer concert series!
In October 2005 Terese appeared at the Cabaret Convention in New York and performed "Drunk With Love: A Tribute to Frances Faye" at the Encore, a show that was nominated for MAC (Manhattan Association of Cabaret and Clubs) Best Female Debut 2006. She performed it again at ODC Theater in San Francisco, again in New York in May 2006 at the new Metropolitan Room, in San Francisco at Jazz At Pearl’s in August, and then back in New York at the Metropolitan Room, where this performance was recorded live with the best musicians from both Coasts giving strong support on the wild Faye arrangements!
You get, on this recording, all the excitement of the live performance, plus the additional benefit of hearing the purity of Terese’s amazing vocal instrument.
Notes on some of the songs:
The Man I Love: The CD opens with an introduction that recreates Faye’s openings, with greetings and comments about friends in the audience (myself included), then launches into Faye’s arrangement of "The Man I Love" with the infamous pause on one lyric, and also illustrates how Faye switched songs mid-song, with comments on why or why not!
Tonight You Belong To Me: A song recorded by many from Kay Starr and Frankie Laine to the sub teen pair Patience and Prudence, who had a big hit single on a song with pretty strong adulterous content. Sometimes this song was banned from the airwaves too!
I Ain’t Got Nobody: Faye filmed this as an early "soundie" (a primitive version of MTV video) encased in a steam cabinet with only her head showing. You can find it on youtube.
I Wish That I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate: An old standard, sung by Betty Grable in one of her movies, but older than Grable. No one did it like Faye---until Genecco!
Beatles Medley: Faye loved the Beatles and the Beatles loved her! They met in Australia and she began to include this in all her live acts, especially loving "Yesterday".
Night and Day: Legend is that Faye’s Capitol recording was improvised. Genecco’s version has all the excitement, extended into a frenzy, with great support by the musicians, especially Joe Passaro on Latin percussion.
Drunk With Love: A song written by Bruz Fletcher, an openly gay performer, who committed suicide in 1941, after his life was ruined by the right wing Los Angeles police squads, (see "I Want To Live" for another tale of the railroading of the Los Angeles police at the time). Faye found it among his effects and put it in her act. She sang it at every performance. Genecco brings out all the heartbreak and passion in a performance that soars!
Unchain My Heart: All powerhouse singers caught on to Ray Charles and his ebullient style early on, but few could match his energy and intensity in performance of this tale of unrequited love. Faye was one of the first. Genecco hits dead center and hangs on to high notes here, in a fast and furious recreation of Faye’s version from her “Caught In The Act” LP.
Purple Wine: A song co-written by Faye herself, that she recorded as the "A" side of a single; the “B” side becoming a huge hit for The Andrews Sisters (“Well, All Right!”), a song also co-written by Faye.
St. James Infirmary: You think you know this song but you’ve never heard it until now. Faye recorded it on her folk songs album. Genecco’s 7-piece "Little Big Band" wails through Russ Garcia’s arrangement, featuring hot, muted trumpet solos by New Yorker Chris Rogers. With Genecco moaning and wailing, this performance threatens to break the sound barrier of your surround sound equipment, as it did the Metropolitan stage!
Kansas City: Incredible solos by each and everyone of the band, including Tom Hubbard (NYC) on bass, Randy Odell (SF) on drums, Joe Passaro (NYC) on Latin percussion, Fil Lorenz (SF) on tenor sax, Chris Rogers (NYC) on trumpet, Max Perkoff (SF) on trombone, and Barry Lloyd (SF) on piano.
In 2007, Terese Genecco won the Backstage Bistro Award for Best Tribute Show for "Drunk With Love: A Tribute to Frances Faye".
Here, for your own excitement, is that show, recorded with some of the introductory patter that recreates Faye’s unique style and flair.