Beckie Menzie & Tom Michael
Chicago, Illinois, United States | SELF
Music
Press
“You’ll hear music, mighty fine music” goes the slightly altered Frank Loesser lyric, but the alteration couldn’t be more fitting when that music we hear comes from Beckie Menzie and Tom Michael. Dumping a theme or structure, the duo presents “just music we love,” as Michael puts it, and it is a joyous, intoxicating hour of, well, mighty fine music.
From the lift Michael peppers through You’re the One For Me to Menzie’s self-penned (with lyricist Cheri Coons) Going Nowhere Fast, about the high-speed perils of Internet dating, there’s a lot to bounce along here. But, as is their trademark, when Menzie and Michael layer their voices over and under each other’s, the effect is downright thrilling. Witness the passion and power of All I Know, underscored by Menzie’s at first delicate and alternately dramatic arrangement (oh, wow !, that final chord !) and the outright glee in Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead.
On their own, Michael soars on There’s a Boat That’s Leaving Soon For New York, while Menzie creates a languid confessional with Anyplace I Hang My Hat is Home.
Amid the consummate professionalism that is deeply rooted in both Menzie and Michael lingers a true sense of joy and wonder in the making of music and sharing it. Individually and as a team, they exude such wonder in the pure art of music that one can’t help but be caught up in it as well. And in this program, we get such a sense of relaxed ease that we’re immediately put in that state along with them. How can one be relaxed and all a-tingle at the same time? Stop by Davenport’s on Friday nights this month and find out. ( * * * * Four Stars)
April 2004 - Cabaret Scenes Magazine
Discography
Better Two-Gether (full-length CD), Beckie Menzie & Tom Michael
Sailing On (full-length CD), Tom Michael
Real Emotional Girl (full-length CD), Beckie Menzie
Written in the Stars (full-length CD), Tom Michael
Heart and Soul (full-length CD), Beckie Menzie
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
One of cabaret’s most in-demand duos, Beckie Menzie and Tom Michael offer a unique blend of whimsy, nostalgia and unquestionable talent that translates into pure entertainment. Their imaginative musical twists on jazz favorites, standards, contemporary pop, Broadway show tunes and film gems, have won them audience and critical acclaim across the country and around the globe.
Hailed by Cabaret Scenes Magazine as one of the “Top Ten Cabaret Acts,” Menzie & Michael have appeared on some of the country’s most prestigious stages, including New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Their recording efforts have been praised by Billboard Magazine, BackStage, Show Business Weekly and Playbill and their latest CD, “Better Two-gether,” has been hailed by critics as “magic,” “sensational,” and “…the year’s best recording.”
In what they call a “musical marriage,” Menzie & Michael delight audiences with their rare chemistry, inventive arrangements and genuine love for music and for one another.
Menzie’s rich voice and expert piano stylings sizzle on everything from sassy swing to smoky torch songs. A three-time winner of After Dark Chicago’s “Outstanding Cabaret Artist” award, Menzie is a diva-in-demand whom WGN radio has praised as “one of the city’s finest performers.” Her critically-acclaimed solo CD “Real Emotional Girl” garnered national radio play and was praised by Cabaret Scenes as “one of the year’s finest.”
With a voice that Billboard Magazine describes as, “…a revelation,” Michael’s warm, expressive style and charismatic tenor breathe new life into cabaret standards and reveal why BackStage Magazine has called him “one of the most striking singers to emerge in the last few years.” His most current solo CD, “Written in the Stars,” received international critical praise and was named “Best CD of the Year” by ShowBusiness Weekly Magazine, After Dark Chicago and WDVR-FM radio.
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