Well, dear readers, it was two years ago that I began a little journey with an East Coast Singer named Sandy Bainum. My long-time collaborator, Lanny Meyers, had been working with her for some time and felt it was time for her to maybe have a look at what they’d been doing and maybe help her a bit. So, they came to LA and we met at my home environment. At that point, Sandy hadn’t done much cabaret, and she had all sorts of ideas for all sorts of acts. She first did some stuff from an act she and Lanny had been working on, with no real director attached. It was a Dorothy Parker show. As she did stuff from it I just sat there wondering why on Earth I was being asked to watch such a thing – certainly it wasn’t a cabaret show or structured like a cabaret show, and it had no point. Then she did some songs from some other thing they were working on, kind of a songs you never heard, most of which came from various albums I’d produced. Again, I sat there not understanding why a person I didn’t know was singing a bunch of songs without any connection to them, other than she liked them. After, I suggested what I always suggest to singers who are interested in working with me – that we all go out for a meal. I always find that talking over a meal is fun and productive and everyone is relaxed and gabbing and eating. And so, at our first meal together I was asked what I thought and since I am not shy about saying what I think when I’m asked, I told her what I though, namely that I didn’t understand what she was doing or why she was doing it and that all good cabaret has to come from some personal thing that’s about the performer as much as the song choices. And also that every act has to have a point and a point of view.
I told her the Dorothy Parker show should go away – it wasn’t “her” at all and it had no point and wasn’t interesting as a cabaret piece. Then we talked about the songs you never heard thing and I said I felt while it had a point there was no personal connection to that point and therefore it was just a bunch of random songs with no context, not even history lessons of what the songs were. I think she was taken aback by my reaction and what I was saying, but she listened. She asked if I’d work with her and that she’d already booked some date for a Don’t Tell Mama’s appearance. I didn’t like that she’d done that, but I agreed to scotch-tape something together for her. She told me she was interested in us working together and I told her I thought we could have fun, but that it would not be an overnight process with me. I explained that I like to have lots of meals, where I ask lots of questions, pry, and get to know the person I’m working with. I want them to let down their guard, I want to know who they are, what makes them tick, what they respond to, what they feel about things – all of it. Because all anyone in cabaret has is their very own self and how they feel about things, but it’s amazing how many cabaret acts I see that don’t understand that very simple concept. So, instead we get an act that’s a tribute to another singer, an act with a bunch of random songs with no context, blah, blah, blah. Yes, the performer’s friends all come and woo hoo and they post the videos on You Tube and think they’ve done a real act, but they haven’t. No, the real test is when you do an act for complete strangers – THEN you know what’s what. Some singers get scared to work with a strong director, but they shouldn’t as long as the director is focused and good at his/her job. As I explained to her, I have strong opinions and I never settle for less than the performer’s best, but it’s never ever about me and always about them.
We did her scotch-taped together thing at Don’t Tell Mama’s. I think we had all of four rehearsals and it showed. Sandy’s husband said to me that even in that embryonic stage of our relationship she was better and more assured, but I knew the “act” wasn’t good or right and I was anxious to create something completely new. Alas, that did not happen for her next show either, which was better but still scotch-taped together and without enough rehearsal time. We did that show in New York at the Metropolitan Room (I’d told her absolutely no more clubs like Don’t Tell Mama), and then in LA at the Gardenia. But she wasn’t really ready and the shows, while okay, weren’t anywhere near where they needed to be. No, I felt there was no real point in doing these shows, because while they were okay, I still didn’t know who she was and she was still not comfortable being herself. During that time, I once said to her, “I feel like you’re standing next to yourself, watching your performance and calculating everything.” She later told me that really resonated with her. She was very comfortable playing roles, where she could come to the character and get lost in the character. But in cabaret the only role you’re playing is yourself and you have to do a very good job of it. You have to embrace the audience, let them in, have them fall in love with you, and it’s much harder than you’d expect. It’s all about the song choices and having the patter inform each and every song in one way or another. And that every act needs a simple point. We hadn’t found that yet.
Then at some point she mentioned that she’d like to do another CD. She’d done one – I’d heard it and didn’t care for it, especially sound-wise, but I also felt that it was clear there’d been no one in the studio to really direct her. So, she asked if I’d produce a Christmas CD for her and create an act based on that CD, which I agreed to, since I understood the point. For once, we had time, blessed time. And we were all very involved in the album’s creation. She asked me to write her a Christmas song and I said I’d think about it, but didn’t really think I would, since every kind of Christmas song had already been written. But then one day I hit on the idea of This Christmas, about a shiksa dating a Jew at Christmas time. We had grand fun recording the album, and it came out so well that I decided to issue it on Kritzerland (I told her up front that that was not a foregone conclusion). But she didn’t have any mechanism in place to get the album heard – the people we gave it to seemed to really enjoy it, though. She did the act we quickly assembled for her and it went well enough, although most of it was directed via Face Time, which I didn’t really enjoy.
Then in one of our work sessions early this year, while talking about potential acts (she wanted to do an Ira Gershwin show, really kind of based on the album I did with Christiane Noll), and we talked about how to make the scotch-taped act better. But I didn’t like the scotch-taped act and I didn’t really want to continue with it. So, my suggestion in how to continue building her cabaret career was to do a second album – I felt strongly that that was the best way to create a presence for her, and then we could create a brand new act based on the album we created. She liked the idea and we began to work on it. I suggested a lot of the songs – things just came to me as we sat and yakked about stuff. Again, she asked about doing one of my songs, and I played Simply for her, a song I knew would sit perfectly in her voice. She loved it and after about a week, we had our album selection and it had a point and point of view. We recorded, and Lanny did spectacular work on it, and Sandy was even more comfortable in the studio and had already been through the process with me for the Christmas album in terms of how I work.
Right after that, we put together the Ira Gershwin show – I wrote the patter, we rehearsed it every day on the phone, and again, I directed via Face Time, which I again hated. We had only a handful of in person rehearsals, but the show went well in Washington and even better at the Metropolitan Room. For Simply, we found a radio guy and hired him to promote that and the Christmas album. He’s been on for a few weeks and has gotten some really good airplay for both. Meanwhile, I wrote the patter for the new act and we finally had a lovely and complete week to work on it. And as we worked, things were much easier because Sandy is a very smart person and had been learning and working hard and taking all the notes to heart and she was just getting better and better with each new project. And last night, she debuted the new act, which is basically the new CD on stage, with patter. We had a six-piece band and a full house at The Federal. And of that full house, maybe ten people knew her – everyone else were my friends or people who attend the Kritzerland shows. So, we knew the reaction would be genuine, whatever it was.
And Sandy Bainum came out on that stage, took charge, and never let the audience out of her hand. She was warm, engaging, fun, and sang beautifully. As I’d told her the day before, the difference from two years ago was fairly astonishing. We’d found Sandy Bainum, the lovely person I’d gotten to know over any number of meals. There was no more standing outside of herself – there was just the real Sandy, with her beauty and her inner light. She did herself proud and I was really proud of her. A year ago I told her we had to build this thing we’re building and that it would take patience and time. And that finally began paying off last night. And it will get better because Sandy isn’t complacent, ever. I still feel that recordings are the way to go – really getting her voice out there and to that end we’ll do a third album next year and we already kind of know what it is. For me personally it will be an exciting project to work on – I wasn’t sure I wanted to when she suggested it to me – in fact, I was pretty set against it, until I really thought about it. Her suggestion, maybe half-joking, maybe not, was to do an album of my songs. We both felt that This Christmas and Simply had fit her like a glove, and she’d been listening to all those songs I was posting in these here notes a few months ago and she was really liking them. And as I began to take the thought seriously I began to think that maybe it wasn’t a bad idea at all. Lanny was all for it, too, and so I believe that’s what we’ll be doing. For this one, we will have a couple of powerhouse duet partners.
So, it was a great night for her – she got wonderful compliments from everyone. I knew mostly everyone in the room and it was a wonderfully giving and supportive audience. And our band was great. Cousins Dee Dee and Alan were there, Shannon Warne (who’s been in many Kritzerland shows), our own VinTek and his lovely wife, Lissa Levin and her ever-lovin’ Dan Guntzelman (Noah Cross in the Outside the Box Chinatown episode), Adryan Russ and her hubby Dale, Doug Haverty and wife Dorothy, Jessica Drake and her daughter, Robert Yacko, Dennis Kyle (who sings backup on Sandy’s Simply CD), little Hadley Miller and her dad (she did the Let’s Get Together duet with me), and another young performer I think we’ll be using in a Kritzerland show, engineer John Adams, and lots of others I’m probably forgetting.
After the show, Sandy, a friend, and I went to the Coral Café just for a little bite to eat. Prior to the show, I’d been up since eight, the Garage Man came and fixed the problem with the garage door, and then I just tried to relax until going to the club at three for the band rehearsal and sound check.
A couple of days ago, I received an e-mail from a nice man named Robert Deutsch, who I remembered as a reviewer for Stereophile magazine from Varese days. He sent me his latest column, which is in the hard copy and online magazine that just came out. He’s reviewing some speakers, but he asked me to scroll to the end of the review, which I did. And this is what he wrote in that final paragraph:
“As I write this on my laptop in the living room, music is drifting down from the listening room upstairs. It’s Haines His Way, featuring the vocalism of a certain Guy Haines, the nom de microphone of Bruce Kimmel, a record producer, stage director, and author who is also a more-than-competent singer (CD, Fynsworth Alley FA2109 SE). The song is “You Must Believe in Spring” (by Michel Legrand, Jacques Demy, and Alan and Marilyn Bergman), which I’ve heard sung by more famous singers, but none has matched the smooth delivery and emotional involvement of Haines/Kimmel. I go upstairs and listen to it again. It brings tears to my eyes. The speakers are the Imagine T2 Towers. The review is finished, so I’ll have to arrange for the speakers to be picked up by PSB, to be shipped to JA for measurements. They’ll be replaced in my listening room by my Avantgarde Uno Nanos. I’m in no hurry to make the switch.”
That really touched me and I thanked him profusely for his beautiful comments.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s beauty sleep, then I will immediately buckle down, Winsocki and finish some liner notes and get them on their merry way. I’ll eat, maybe jog, hopefully pick up some packages, and then have a rehearsal and run-through.
The rest of the week is more of the same – liner notes, rehearsing, and run-throughs, then we go into tech.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, write, eat, maybe jog, hopefully pick up some packages, and rehearse. Today’s topic of discussion: Who are your favorite singers in cabaret today? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy that we have have found Sandy Bainum.