By Steven Suskin
17 Nov 2002
A pentimento is an underlying image in a painting, usually when the top layer becomes transparent with age to reveal a different layer underneath. This sort of treatment can be applied to songs of the first third of the twentieth century, now that you mention it; but why get esoteric?
"Pentimento" — the title of Jessica Molaskey's smashingly delightful solo CD — is the only thing inaccessible about the venture. Molaskey has a point, if you read her liner notes; but why don't you just listen to the disc first, five or six times. "This was a time when people tried to focus on the possibilities of what tomorrow might bring," she tells us, and she's absolutely right. "By the beautiful sea, oh how happy we'll be," Harry Carroll and Harold Atteridge told teeming hordes who could only dream of happiness by the sea back in 1914. All will be well "when the red, red robin goes bob-bob bobbin' along / There'll be no more sobbing when he starts throbbing his old sweet song." This from Harry M. Woods to folks who, in 1926, had a Depression and a World War ahead of them.
This is an interesting viewpoint, and a valid one; but that, in itself, doesn't make for entertaining listening. Jessica Molaskey does. (Make for entertaining listening.) "Pentimento" is a balm for the troubles of the everyday world. Molaskey's voice is a cool, cool drink on a lazy hot day. Friendly and welcoming, with a hidden throb hinting of inner mystery.
Most of these songs predate the Depression, but the pop songwriter's message was usually aimed at the masses. "I can't give you anything but love, baby, diamond bracelets Woolworth's doesn't sell," Dorothy Fields wrote — before the crash. "Not much money, oh but honey, ain't we got fun?" Richard Whiting, Gus Kahn and Ray Egan asked in 1921. "Even if we owe the grocer, tax collector's getting closer, there's nothing surer, the rich get which and the poor get poorer."
But "Pentimento" is not just a collection of nostalgic old songs. Molaskey has selected good songs, with music that is as refreshing and catchy today as it must have been when it was first whistled on the street. Who'd have thought that "Oh, You Beautiful Doll" would remain irresistible, 91 years after Nat Ayer and A. Seymour Brown wrote it?
Molaskey is a relatively hidden talent whom you might have missed in her numerous theatrical appearances. These include the Johnny Mercer revue Dream and an assortment of interesting if similarly short-lived ventures: Songs for a New World, Parade, 3hree, Dream True, Wise Guys. Just now she's up at Lincoln Center, almost invisible in A Man of No Importance. Almost, that is; while she doesn't have much of a role, the willowy Molaskey steps out of the ensemble with two solo spots in the second act and just about magnetizes the place with that voice.
So it is not altogether surprising that "Pentimento" is so good. The disc is a family affair, which is a smart choice when your husband and your father-in law are superb musicians. John Pizzarelli — who appeared with Molaskey in Dream, and then married her —and his father, Bucky, play the guitars and ukes. They are joined by a handful of exceptional players, including Ken Peplowski on the clarinet and Johnny Frigo on the violin. The results are immensely enjoyable.
All in all, this is a "Pentimento" you'll want to listen to again and again.
—Steven Suskin, author of "Broadway Yearbook 2000-2001," "Broadway Yearbook 1999-2000," "Show Tunes," and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached by e-mail at Ssuskin@aol.com.
