Emily Abraham
New York City, New York, United States
Music
Press
Waif-like and demure, promising jazz bird Emily Abraham has an impressive background in the performing arts, having attended a summer session at The Eastman School of Music and winning a scholarship to Sarah Lawrence College. But she can thank her friendship and collaboration with director Lina Koutrakos and, especially, musical arranger Rick Jensen, for helping to make her show at the Metropolitan Room so memorable. She offered re-arranged takes on a song list of well-known jazz standards and well-chosen pop staples, with a few Broadway gems thrown in for good measure.
She opened with an unusual pairing of Paul Desmond’s “Take Five” and Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies.” Musically, the combination worked and stylistically they were effective in showing off the wispy, breathy quality of her vocal and scatting ability.
Jensen’s arrangements were particularly appropriate on “I’ve Got the World on a String” and “Out of This World” where he built them around her vocals and thanks, too, to her exceptional trio of first-rate musicians (Noah Haidu on piano, Dan Martin on bass and Dan Sternbach on drums) who managed to make both songs sound fresh and inventive.
Abraham showed intelligence and a facility with rapid-paced lyrics on Sondheim’s “Getting Married Today” and Loughborough and Wheat’s “Better Than Anything” and an overall comfort level with the swingier “Love You Madly” (Duke Ellington and Luther Henderson) and Cahn and Van Heusen’s “Come Fly with Me.”
By show’s end, I regretted not hearing a bit more depth, vocally and emotionally, and not knowing Emily herself a little better through her patter and song choices. I sense a real sweetheart!
Lynn DiMenna - Cabaret Scenes
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
The critic Roy Sander has called Emily “interesting, intelligent, eclectic, very appealing, and filled with wry humor.” Lynn DiMenna of Cabaret Scenes calls Emily a “promising jazz bird” while Peter Leavy of Cabaret Scenes said “Abraham’s interpretations of the songs hit the target.” Emily grew up in rural western New York where she attended a high school that didn’t have any performing arts programs, and so she gravitated toward singing in the chorus. While growing up she learned traditional art songs, hymns and operettas. When she was 16 years old, a summer stint at Eastman School of Music opened her up to the world of jazz, which is when she learned her first standard, Skylark. At that time Emily decided that what she wanted most was to sing jazz. She was awarded a scholarship to Sarah Lawrence College, which she dropped after one year in favor of moving to New York City. She attended Stella Adler Conservatory for two years full-time and after graduation, Emily did a national tour followed by local productions in the city. Her journey eventually brought her the cabaret scene, where she found the freedom to try on a whole other world of music such as that of Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits, Sarah McLachlan, and Tori Amos. Emily has performed in several shows at clubs both as the headliner and as backup, including the Duplex, Don’t Tell Mama, Bar Thalia and the Metropolitan Room. Currently Emily is performing her set of re-arranged jazz standards, with a few esoteric pop tunes thrown in, at venues in and around the NYC area.
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