The Cabaret at The Columbia Club: Tony DeSare

Posted by admin on October 28, 2011

by Lou Harry, Indianapolis Business Journal A&E Editor
September 16 & 17, 2011

Even if he didn’t sing “I Love a Piano” (which he did), Tony DeSare left no doubt about his feelings toward the instrument during his Sept. 17 performance at the Cabaret at the Columbia Club.

In a vibrant program focused primarily on love songs, the crooner/pianist/songwriter simultaneously stamped and respected classics such as “Moon River,” “Georgia on My Mind,” and  “They Can’t Take that Away from Me.” While in terrific voice, he also spent ample time taking playful keyboard turns, accentuating both the standards and the originals.

The most engaging of the later, surprisingly, was “East to the Sea,” a tune DeSare wrote as an ad for Long Island’s Hamptons Jitney Bus. It sends a clear message that there’s as much Billy Joel as Frank Sinatra in this up-and-comer. And maybe, as a composer, there’s a musical or two in his future.

In a nod to the theater across the Circle, DeSare credited the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s Jack Everly for the bump his career has taken after being booked for an ISO Irving Berlin pops tribute a few years back. DeSare now performs regularly at New York’s Carlyle Hotel and will play Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops in October. Here’s hoping he makes Indianapolis a regular stop.

Click here for Lou’s full review of the weekend.