DONNA BYRNE; pure magic. She shines on and off stage, because she is real and tenderly powerful. How real is she? Does she bring life, real life to stage, or does she perform just like a diva? "Absolutely, I bring to stage, my own life and humanity. I avoid lyrics that I can bring nothing to. I almost approach the music with the same technique as a method actor. I've had to pay some dues so I might as well use them to my musical advantage. I don't have a drop of Diva blood in my veins." told me Donna Byrne. New York is buzzing with neon, billboards and singers. Chanteuses are everywhere. Some tremble in their solitude and faded glorious past. Others steam on stage and steal the show. Some are harassing their booking agents, "lazy, lazy, inefficient is my manager" said dethroned diva Z. " I have a bad publicist" shouted Diva X. And "I am doing great, gigs, engagements, busy schedule, I couldn't ask for better..." exhilarated Diva Y. New York's cabarets are crazy packed. Adventurers, hustlers, resourceful gigolos, boring three piece suits executive at the bar zipping Martini and sinking in bowls of cashews...schmoozer and cruisers looking for action and desperate hot chicks who just landed here, fresh from Iowa and Walla Walla. And there, at the very end of the shrinking bar, a few genuine music lovers and cabaret connoisseurs yearning for encores.
The cabaret chanteuse is on stage. She is grabbing the mic, leaning against a strategically positioned baby grand on stage. She wants to look dramatic, a Mata Hari type, a shadow of Marlene Dietrich. So the black piano is OK, it adds a mystic to her performance...Deja vu?! You bet your gazebo...it is part of the show, part of the trade, part of the craft and part of the persona of the performer... sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But the show goes on. C'est la vie! But when Donna Byrne appears on stage, gigolos get serious and rethink their priorities. Characters in boring three piece suit stop chewing on cashews and begin to listen. Schmoozer and cruisers stop to cruise and booze, they are taking by what they hear...the whole damned joint becomes a serious place, a place for music instead of meat market. Who in heavens is doing the re-makeup of the joint? Queen Martha or loud Trump? None of the above. It is the voice of Donna Byrne with all its bursting and powerfully nostalgic fragrance, the warmth of Donna herself and the class she ads to the place. So forget for now about New York's neon, billboards, the buzz and the complaints of maniac divas, and enjoy the show of Donna Byrne. She is a knockout. You paid a heavy nifty cover charge to get in? It is perfectly alright, because Donna is here and Donna is going to send you to heaven. Me? To hell, because all my friends are there, but, hey Contessa Miranda Esmeranda, and Rudy Valentino, don't worry, I am taking with me Donna's CD. A great voice is an asset but not enough! A performer needs three more things; stage presence and Donna Byrne wrote the book on this; improvisation that flirts with and transcends lyrics and music. Donna is known for her innovative and creative improvisation. One of her trademark is beginning a song with a rich slow cadence a cappella of the lines, melodiously and sensually resonating into an allegro moderato tempo, thus adding more depth, warmth and unrestrained dimension to the words and the melody. The entourage, the type of clientele, the fabric of the songs, the band disposition and her personal physical and state of mind have no bearing on her. She is powerful and self assured.
She goes for it al the way. Did you know that when she started working her first gig, a happy hour in Falmouth, MA in 1977, Donna was 8 months pregnant at the time, and yep, she was on stage and took over. The piano player she was working with and all the musicians who came to Falmouth to listen to her insisted that she was right on, a vivacious and creative jazz singer who improvised and played around with the melody, the lyrics, the arrangements and the lines. In one of her performances at the Tavern on the Green gig, Donna was taken aback, just a little, when she spotted in the audience Jazz greats Tony Bennett and Margaret Whiting, But Donna ended up singing "Happy Birthday" for Bennett who said on the record: "It doesn't get any better than this . . . One of the best young jazz singers in the country today. She's the Real McCoy." Donna believes that it is the singer's role to attempt to bring the audience on a journey with her (or him) and to transform their reality in the brief time that is shared with them. "Simply providing a technically proficient recitation of the song is not enough. People pay to be entertained. I also think that it is of critical importance to the success of a performance that an emotional connection be established with the audience. Sometimes it happens, sometimes not and I can usually tell right away if it's there.", told me Donna Byrne. Nothing else to be said. Go see Donna Byrne on stage, and have the best time of your life. This woman is a national treasure!-By Maximillien de Lafayette, London. Special to Showbiz Time Magazine.