I was thrilled to get Barbara Fasano on the phone last week at her West Side Manhattan apartment, considering what a packed schedule she has these days (and the fact that she’s such a night owl, she wasn’t up for yakking until 11 in the morning). She was still reeling from her recent CD release party for Written In the Stars (Human Child Records). “It’s so much to take in,” she said, “It was…unbelievable.”
I could believe it. I’d already heard through the e-vine that Barbara had wowed an SRO crowd at The Metropolitan Room. The CD, which honors the composer Harold Arlen, and includes tunes like “Let’s Fall in Love,” and “Come Rain or Come Shine,” had gotten fantastic pre-release buzz, including music critic David Hajdu’s praise: “Barbara Fasano proves that she is not just a great Italian crooner, an heir to Sinatra for our time, but a jazz singer of the first rank.”
In the midst of Babs (as I’ve called her since college days) giving me her more humble version of the night, she filled me in on girlfriends’ details: “I found this great black dress to wear, little belt, rhinestone, perfect…” Besides being a fan of her singing, I’ve always been inspired by the chic style she puts together, onstage and off.
“Hold on a sec,” was followed by the smacks of kisses in the background, and “See you in a couple of hours, honey,” exchanged between Babs and her husband of two years, award-winning jazz performer, Eric Comstock. She came back to me, giddy, with, “We’re going to sing at a party at the Sherry-Netherland tonight.”
I had to take a step back from this love-and-career-going-fabulously moment and paraphrase David Byrne: “Babs, how did you get here?” These days, in response to that, she quotes Harold Arlen: “Life happens to you.”
As she writes in her liner notes, the volatile Italian-American household she grew up in helped her reach a deep understanding of the drama in Arlen’s songs. “It feels like home,” she says, remembering how as her mother cooked the lasagna, she’d sing along to her father’s jazz albums, which featured greats like Ella singing, “This Time the Dream’s On Me.”
“And right when I started working on the Arlen music, I fell in love with Eric. He’s such an expert on the Songbook. Every day while we were dating he’d bring over these compilation tapes of Arlen songs from his collection—like, six versions of “Shining Hour,” so I could listen to how Garland, Tony Bennett, and all these other singers did it. My passion for the songs was mirrored by his.” They tied the knot a month after her Arlen show (on which the CD is based) opened.
I’ve watched Babs tackle life and biz struggles along the bumpy way, which makes this up time that much sweeter. “Like I tell my students (and I always have to remind myself),” she says, “You have to keep the faith. If you stay in the moment, stay with the love of the work, the process, you know you won’t give up.”
The clock was ticking and she was multi-tasking: pulling out the blue velvet gown for that night’s party, getting ready to head out to give a coaching session, hoping to have time in between for a workout at Crunch…She took a deep breath before dashing off, with a parting, “I’m just so grateful.”