Welcome to
Club Rendezvous, a place both inviting and mysterious, lost in time but pulsing
with the thrill of the moment. Step inside and be greeted by the hard-boiled
and the heartbroken, as sultry femmes fatale brood at the bar and the elite
meet near the bandstand.
This is the
utterly fantastically yet vividly imagined speakeasy noir conjured by
Moscow-born bassist and bandleader Alexander Gershman with his collaborator,
multi-GRAMMY® Award-winning writer/producer Charlie Midnight. Performed by
Gershman’s brainchild, the Los Angeles ensemble Sasha’s Bloc, Club Rendezvous
is the band’s most ambitious creation to date, a concept album co-produced and
co-written by Gershman and Midnight, that features dazzling vocals by the
band’s multi-talented 23-year-old singer Nikki Lorenzo.
The album is
tailor-made to expand into a multi-media extravaganza incorporating period
visuals, swing dancing, raucous cabaret and the vintage jazz thrills in which
the band excels. Club Rendezvous spins the spellbinding story of a Chanteuse
(enchantingly embodied by Lorenzo) who has graced the stage of this mystical
nightclub since 1929 (save for a brief but ill-fated fling with Chet Baker
somewhere in the distant past), remaining eternally ageless as audiences come
and go but always transporting them back in time to a more elegant yet
dangerous era. Lorenzo describes the chanteuse as “the most confident,
self-aware, romantic powerhouse, and that bleeds through with every lyric.”
The lyrics
were crafted by Midnight in close collaboration with Gershman. Midnight, a
multi-GRAMMY® award winning and GOLDEN GLOBE® nominated writer/producer whose
career highlights include co-writing the GRAMMY® nominated James Brown classic
“Living in America,” writing for more than 40 films as well as
writing/producing for a diverse range of superstars including Barbra Streisand,
Cher, Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, Britney Spears, Andrea Bocelli, Christina
Aguilera, Joe Cocker and Chaka Khan.
“We became
more and more immersed into this speakeasy environment. Charlie came up with the
idea of this singer out of time, who stays in the club through the years as the
world changes around her,” Gershman describes. “It fit my music perfectly,
because as I was writing this album, I found my tunes taking shape in a similar
style but with a more modern twist. I really want these songs to appeal to a
younger audience, to introduce them to the beauty of classic jazz, and I think
Charlie’s experience in pop music is perfect for that. It’s been a great
collaboration.”
Once they
fleshed out the concept, it became clear that they’d need a singer who would
capture a demanding set of requirements – someone able to connect with the jazz
sound of a bygone era while maintaining a modern sensibility, able to create a
living, breathing character from her voice alone, and able to capture the
audience’s attention to carry them through the narrative with a range of
sensations, from haunting to wistful, sassy to seductive.
A series of
auditions brought them to Lorenzo, a brilliantly talented young singer, songwriter
and actress whose own music is a far cry from the nostalgic style of Sasha’s
Bloc but carries in it the traces of jazz and pop music past. “I moved to Los
Angeles to pursue music and acting,” says the Miami native, “and through Club
Rendezvous I feel like I get the best of both worlds. I get to be theatrical
and step into a character, to play around with different looks and vocal
styles. Yet she’s still an extension of who I am as an artist.”
Gershman is
enthusiastic about his discovery and her ability to breathe life into his
multifarious Chanteuse. “Nikki is young, intelligent, talented, has a very good
command of the voice, she’s mysterious, she understands cabaret, she has that
energy and confidence, and she works really hard,” he says. “For a 23-year-old
she has remarkable depth and can find the darkness this project needs as well.
Jazz is about storytelling; the quality of the voice is important, but it’s the
delivery, the ability to tell the story a get people emotionally involved in
what you’re singing, that’s so rare.”
“Every song
I sing,” Lorenzo entices on the opening track, “honey, I sing for you.” From
the ragtime barroom feel of “Rendezvous” she coaxes the listener forward in
time for the intoxicating, string-swathed ballad “Kiss for a Kiss.” Harmonies
(courtesy of the Sashettes) enliven a feminist rejection of jilted-lover
clichés on the raucous “Swing and Swagger,” while “Cigarettes, Coffee and
Champagne” basks in bittersweet morning-after solitude.
A blast of
drums and horns opens the upbeat “Going to Extremes,” featuring a guest vocal
by former Glee star Matthew Morrison. Kye Palmer’s elegiac trumpet sets the
mood for the aching “Memory in Black and White,” contrasted by the lively
rhythms of “Boogie Side of Town.” Andy Langham’s last-call piano captures the
“sex and mystery” promised (or regretted?) by “Written with the Blues,” while
“Land of Noir” puts a pop spin on the shadow shrouded genre of gin joints and
double-crosses.
Lorenzo’s
feline slink pairs with Gershman’s stealthy bass on “Alley Cat,” before “I
Choose Happiness” lets the sun back in to a jaunty rhythm. “Crazy Love”
luxuriates in the madness of passion before Lorenzo concludes the story with
the vintage feel of “Time Out of Time.”
The music of
Club Rendezvous bristles with the excitement and virtuosity of some of the
finest musicians in L.A., many of whom have been part of Sasha’s Bloc since its
beginning. “These are the most talented people I’ve ever worked with,” Lorenzo
says. “I love that because it makes you want to rise to the occasion. For
audiences, it’s like nothing they’ve ever seen before. You can go watch a
regular concert and be moved, but this is special – a big band experience with
timeless songs that still very much hold a place in your world.”
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