MARC POMPE
Chicago nightclub singer and pianist Marc Pompe returns to the Old Pueblo Grill, 60 N. Alvernon Way, on Sunday, Nov. 25, for a showcase gig with the Pete Swan Trio at Swan's weekly evening of jazz and a jam.
Anyone old enough to appreciate supper club and restaurant entertainers before rock 'n' roll took over will appreciate Pompe's skill as a saloon singer with that offhand and intimately rueful personality you don't hear much anymore.
As Randy Freedman wrote for Chicago Jazz Magazine: "Pompe is every inch an original. He has a breezy,
don't-take-me-too-seriously-unless-I-want-you-to style that suggest an earlier jazz era, but is relevant to the here and now.
"Pompe can swing hard or can bring you sensitive phrasing and tempo to highlight the beauty of a lyric. Sometimes he does both within the very same song. Few other artists can match his variety of musical skills and imagination.
"Some vocalists may experiment with a new song the first few times they perform it, but eventually settle on one interpretation which makes them feel comfortable and seems to please their audience.
"Pompe seems to regard each new performance of a song the way a great painter does a fresh piece of canvas, and seizes every opportunity to re-examine and re-interpret melody and lyrics as they sound at the moment, in that room, with those instruments and those musicians, and tweak them as he pleases. No two performances are the same, and a careful listener can always find something new and different each time they hear him."
The music starts at 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 25, at the Old Pueblo Grill, 60 N. Alvernon Way. No cover, no minimum.
Chicago nightclub singer and pianist Marc Pompe returns to the Old Pueblo Grill, 60 N. Alvernon Way, on Sunday, Nov. 25, for a showcase gig with the Pete Swan Trio at Swan's weekly evening of jazz and a jam.
Anyone old enough to appreciate supper club and restaurant entertainers before rock 'n' roll took over will appreciate Pompe's skill as a saloon singer with that offhand and intimately rueful personality you don't hear much anymore.
As Randy Freedman wrote for Chicago Jazz Magazine: "Pompe is every inch an original. He has a breezy,
don't-take-me-too-seriously-unless-I-want-you-to style that suggest an earlier jazz era, but is relevant to the here and now.
"Pompe can swing hard or can bring you sensitive phrasing and tempo to highlight the beauty of a lyric. Sometimes he does both within the very same song. Few other artists can match his variety of musical skills and imagination.
"Some vocalists may experiment with a new song the first few times they perform it, but eventually settle on one interpretation which makes them feel comfortable and seems to please their audience.
"Pompe seems to regard each new performance of a song the way a great painter does a fresh piece of canvas, and seizes every opportunity to re-examine and re-interpret melody and lyrics as they sound at the moment, in that room, with those instruments and those musicians, and tweak them as he pleases. No two performances are the same, and a careful listener can always find something new and different each time they hear him."
The music starts at 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 25, at the Old Pueblo Grill, 60 N. Alvernon Way. No cover, no minimum.
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