At the CafÃ© Carlyle

Starring:Bobby Short
Studio: View Video
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Description
"He is a superb stylist, a sophisticated performer who blends savoir faire and genuine talent in equal measure." -The Boston Globe

New York nightlifethe elegant CafÃ© CarlyleParis, LondonCole Porter, Gershwin, Sondheim This is the world of Bobby Short, the reigning monarch of the nightclubs of CafÃ© Society. Born the ninth of ten children in the small town of Danville, Illinois, this renowned singer/ pianist with his legendary repertoire from the greats of Tin Pan Alley is now celebrating his 20th year of packed performances at the CafÃ© Carlyle in New York.

"A marvelous compound of elegance, vitality, nostalgia and sophistication," Short is "a poignant reflection of a colorful, all-but-vanished generation of international CafÃ© Society" said R.E. Kimball of the Yale American Musical Theatre Collection

So join Bobby at the CafÃ© Carlyle for this thrilling set, delivered with his usual verve and charm. He also invites us into his home, for an exlusive and intimate look at the man behind the music. No Cover. No Minimum. Just You, Bobby Short and the intimacy of New York cabaret. The music is forever. SELECTIONS:
1) Four Walls and One Dirty Window Blues
2) (I Love You) Samantha
3) Honeysuckle Blues
4) When My Sugar Walks Down the Street
5) You're the Cutest One
6) Too Marvelous for Words
7) Bojangles of Harlem
8) Streamlined Lulubelle From Tennessee
9) Posin'
10) Everybody's Truckin'
11) Breakfast In Harlem
12) Old Man Harlem
13) Truckin', Thanks To Harlem Now
14) Why Shouldn't I?
15) The Best Is Yet To Come
16) New York Is My Personal Property
17) How's Your Romance
18) I'm Satisfied
19) Do As The Romans Do
20) On The Amazon
21) Dancing At That Moving Picture Ball
22) Sat It Isn't So
23) Losing My Mind
24) Pilote-moi (Pilot Me)
25) Cuba

Description

"He is a superb stylist, a sophisticated performer who blends savoir faire and genuine talent in equal measure." -The Boston Globe

New York nightlife…the elegant Café Carlyle…Paris, London…Cole Porter, Gershwin, Sondheim… This is the world of Bobby Short, the reigning monarch of the nightclubs of Café Society. Born the ninth of ten children in the small town of Danville, Illinois, this renowned singer/ pianist with his legendary repertoire from the greats of Tin Pan Alley is now celebrating his 20th year of packed performances at the Café Carlyle in New York.

"A marvelous compound of elegance, vitality, nostalgia and sophistication," Short is "a poignant reflection of a colorful, all-but-vanished generation of international Café Society" said R.E. Kimball of the Yale American Musical Theatre Collection

So join Bobby at the Café Carlyle for this thrilling set, delivered with his usual verve and charm. He also invites us into his home, for an exlusive and intimate look at the man behind the music. No Cover. No Minimum. Just You, Bobby Short and the intimacy of New York cabaret. The music is forever. SELECTIONS:
1) Four Walls and One Dirty Window Blues
2) (I Love You) Samantha
3) Honeysuckle Blues
4) When My Sugar Walks Down the Street
5) You're the Cutest One
6) Too Marvelous for Words
7) Bojangles of Harlem
8) Streamlined Lulubelle From Tennessee
9) Posin'
10) Everybody's Truckin'
11) Breakfast In Harlem
12) Old Man Harlem
13) Truckin', Thanks To Harlem Now
14) Why Shouldn't I?
15) The Best Is Yet To Come
16) New York Is My Personal Property
17) How's Your Romance
18) I'm Satisfied
19) Do As The Romans Do
20) On The Amazon
21) Dancing At That Moving Picture Ball
22) Sat It Isn't So
23) Losing My Mind
24) Pilote-moi (Pilot Me)
25) Cuba

DVD Bonus Features
- Trivia & Fun Facts Subtitles
- Bobby Short Biography
- Instant Access to Over 35 Selections
- Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
- Multi-Directional Interactive Menus

Customer Reviews:

One Happy Night.......2007-06-05

Bobby Short was a wonderful guy. A great performer and a stellar personality. Leah Jay and I produced this program on a cool evening in 1979. We were loving denizens of the Cafe Carlyle and wanted everyone in the world to Appreciate the Bobby Short we knew and loved. Since, after all, I was a TV producer and owned mobile TV trucks why not drive over and put Bobby on tape, the way Leah thought it should be done. So I made a deal with Bobby and got together a crew and brought 3 cameras and a hand held into the Cafe Carlyle. The lighting was tough trying to keep that wonderful look of the cafe for our TV audience. Well, we did it and we loved it and it played to great plaudits on the defunct CBS cable channel. So I made a deal with a VHS distributor to sell the product and recoup some of the $38,000 I spent. Bobby is wonderful, he comes alive now that he's gone to the big show in the sky and everyone who loves music should see it. Even though VIEW Video who made the DVD doesn't pay me for my work, you should buy this great show because Bobby deserves your adoration.

America's best cabaret singer.......2007-05-13

Those of us who had the pleasure to witness Bobby Short live at the Cafe Carlyle in New York City know very well the level of his talent and passion for his craft. Cafe Carlyle is a small room that was packed for every show Short performed for more than 35 years. His knowledge and expert interpretation of The Great American Songbook was overwhelming. And, his communication to every night's audience was deeply personal. This collection includes wonderful interviews with Short who explains how his career came about, its development, what all the fame has meant to him, and why he so loved what he did for all of us. Dear Bobby, you will be missed forever. Thanks to the DVD, we are all the lucky recipients of a great legacy.

A Priceless Treasure.......2007-03-14

Bobby Short was a favorite performer of mine since I moved to New York in 1955. A friend had his LP with "At the Moving Picture Ball" on it and I insisted she play it whenever I dropped by for coffee, which I did every morning when I was between jobs. I always intended to splurge and go see him at the Carlyle but I was too poor and then too populist for a night club and then too stingy. And there were always the great, great records. And suddenly, after only half a century, he was gone. Thank god for this DVD of a wonderful performance at the club. The ebullience, the superb artistry and the glow of his personal niceness make it a marvelous experience to treasure over and over. And he does "Moving Picture Ball" and other personal favorites, "On the Amazon" and "Why Shouldn't I?"
Bobby fans won't need prompting but this great treat should also be a key discovery for anyone interested in popular song styling of the civilized pre-wail-and-whine era, in Manhattan high life, in the triumph of individual striving and dedication, in... Oh hell, in anything that's fun. -- Paul Rawlings, Bayport, N.Y..

Cafe Society.......2005-09-14

This DVD shows Bobby Short at his best. He is really the last of the great "cafe society" entertainers. The songs selected are terrific and the fact that his audience is shown around the piano makes the whole event quite wonderful. You have the feeling that you are actually in attendance.

Bobby Short Doing What He Did Best, Singing In A Saloon.......2005-07-21

This is a performance film of probably America's greatest saloon singer, and it deserves some love. Bobby Short died just a couple of months ago at 78. He'd been a long-time fixture at New York's posh Hotel Carlyle, performing nightly six months of the year in the Cafe Carlyle. He had announced his retirement at the end of the season but was still packing them in. I suspect he knew he was dying of leukemia and simply refused to make a big deal of it. It wouldn't have been in his character. As a singer, he was the epitome of style and sophistication without any pretension.

"I think of myself," he says on the DVD, "as a saloon singer, and a good saloon singer must come with everything. He's got to play some jazz and fool around with a ballad and sing a waltz and be a tiny bit risque sometimes and sing a tired old barroom song or sing the song of the day. And I've always liked jazz. I grew up with jazz."

Short played piano and was usually backed up by drums and a bass. He sang songs that were grown up and sophisticated, many of them the great "American Songbook" songs by Porter, Gershwin, Rodgers and the other giants. He found forgotten songs and polished them like jewels. He performed many songs by black composers like Razaf, Ellington and Johnson, some well known, some which had languished in obscurity. This performance DVD, in addition to a good interview, shows him performing one night at the Cafe. He covers a lot of ground, always with style; songs like Why Shouldn't I, Honeysuckle Rose, Four Walls and One Dirty Window, Too Marvelous for Words, Streamlined Lulubelle from Tennessee, The Best Is Yet to Come, Dancing at That Moving Picture Ball, How's Your Romance?, Everybody's Truckin', Old Man Harlem, and many others. The audience in the small room eats it up.

"One of the first lessons one learns in any kind of performance," Short says, "is to get his performance up to a certain level no matter what level the audience is at. They call that professionalism, I suppose. Anything above that is gravy and anything below that is not very good."

Bobby Short was not just a cabaret legend, he was an American treasure, for his style and good spirits, for his talent, and, most of all, for the songs he sang. As far as I know, this is the only significant filmed recording of him in action. The performance is intercut with a well-done interview with him. Short made a fair number of records, and if you're interested I'd recommend the CDs "Mabel Mercer and Bobby Short at Town Hall," "Bobby, Noel and Cole," "My Personal Property," "50 by Bobby Short," and the collections of songs he did on Gershwin, Porter and Rodgers & Hart.

The DVD presentation of the performance is good. The recording of the interview is a little soft. The sound is good.

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