Steve Ross
Salon Series
September 12
Private Residence
They had me at “Salon Series.” “They” refer to producers Kristopher Mc Dowell and Andrew Delicata of KMP productions. The very idea of a Sunday afternoon cabaret salon with perhaps twenty guests, big shrimp, and amiable chat following the short performance conjures up Linda delighted by Cole Porter’s bon mot in De Lovely. Sadly, Cole couldn’t perform. Fortunately Steve Ross could. Ross is the perfect entertainer for this setting; elegant and understated. His voice is reliable, his musicianship impeccable and his way with a story remarkable. Ross is a hoot delivering Eddie Cantor’s “Hungry Women.” Performed and recorded (originally on cylinder) by Cantor, “Hungry Women is the story of a hapless gentleman, now broke, not due to the ponies or the market, but from feeding a bevy of hungry women. He gets the half from the magician-sawed in half assistant that eats. He manages to find a woman with only two teeth, yet somehow, “the lower meets the upper!” Ross’ version is arguably better than Cantor’s. It’s sung a little less and the jokes are timed like a Brian Boitano double axel. In Mr. Ross’ hands, “If Ever I Would Leave You,” (Camelot) is no romantic bombast: it becomes a genuine rumination-- an internal dialogue on a decision too difficult to make. The small audience’s sigh of connection as Ross ended the song was palpable. The instrumental medley of Edith Piaf tunes is classy. Class is the word.
--Carla Gordon, Cabaret Scenes Magazine
