Marilyn Maye
April 18th, 8:00pm
April 19th, 8:00pm
Price: $50.00
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Harlans ~ The Nevermore
6426 Lower York Road
New Hope, Pennsylvania
Marilyn Maye
Marilyn Maye's career is a litany of honors, awards, and landmark achievements. She has performed in cabarets and theaters, regularly on nearly all major, national live performance television shows; from Monte Carlo for the late Princess Grace to New York's famed Lincoln Center for the Manhattan's musical elite. All of it a long way from the regional orchestras in midwestern towns where she began.
Marilyn was a singer from the start, performing at age 7; she had her own radio show at age 14, during her high school days. Then she began her career and went on the road, performing in clubs and singing with local orchestras that would make history in the Kansas City big band era. Such was her rise to popularity that Maye appears with the likes of Count Basie, Charlie Bird Parker, Big Joe Turner - immortals of the Kansas City music scene in the book Kansas City Jazz, from Ragtime to Bebop: A History (Driggs/ Haddix, Oxford University Press).
Maye had been drawing crowds for eleven years at the Colony, a Kansas City supper club, when television's Steve Allen heard a locally produced album entitled Marilyn the Most (a rare copy sold recently on Ebay for $102.50). Allen invited Marilyn to appear on “The Steve Allen Show,”and her years on the road began to pay off. RCA signed Marilyn to a recording contract, resulting in seven albums and 34 singles. Her first album was recorded in the renowned Webster Hall with 30 musicians and arrangements by the greats – Don Costa and Manny Albam. Her first hits were “Cabaret;" and "Step to the Rear," (before the Broadway shows opened). She also recorded “Step to the Rear” as a commercial theme and acted as spokeswoman for Lincoln Mercury for 3 ½ years), “Sherry,", "If My Friends Could See Me Now" and more. Her album of great ballads, The Lamp is Low, was arranged and conducted by Peter Matz, (the Carol Burnett TV Show conductor) and is considered a classic.
On the national scene, Maye would appear at New York's Copa Cobana, The Living Room (where her live album for RCA was recorded), Michael’s Pub, The Rainbow Grill, St. Regis, and the legendary Birdland. She played Westchester County's Blind Brook Club, The Westbury Music Fair; Chicago's Drake and The Palmer House; in Hollywood, The Cinegrill and Century Plaza; Las Vegas' Riviera, MGM Grand and Sands; the Fairmont hotels in San Francisco and Dallas, the Shamrock Hotel and the Warwick Post Oak Hotel in Houston. Appearances with symphony orchestras have included the Phoenix Symphony (Doc Severinsen conducting), Philadelphia’s “Philly Pops” (conducted by Peter Nero) the Florida Philharmonic, and many more. Maye’s starring roles in theatre include Stephen Sondheim’s Follies and two Jerry Herman blockbusters, "Mame"and "Hello Dolly." Inspired by her repeated successes playing the irrepressible Dolly Levi, Maye recorded the album, Marilyn Maye Sings All of Hello Dolly, with liner notes by Herman himself. Marilyn’s recent recordings on CD include Rapport, -- The Singing Side of Life, -- Maye Sings Ray (Charles) -- Super Singer, A Tribute to Johnny Carson, -- and Marilyn Maye, Meet Marvelous Marilyn Maye/The Lamp is Low.
At one point, columnist Rex Reed announced that Maye was the preferred singer of the legendary Ella Fitzgerald. Miss Fitzgerald confirmed it herself, when, during an overflow performance at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, she ordered the spotlights turned to the audience - and introduced her favorite singer, Marilyn Maye. They became friends and would later perform together. The reviews poured in: "A national treasure," (Houston Chronicle) "The best singer you may ever hear..." (Jazz Ambassador Magazine), "Marilyn Maye sets the standard for the way any jazz, pop, or big band singer would like to sound..." (Peter Nero, Philadelphia Pops).
Maye is a Grammy nominee, recipient of the coveted Jazz Heritage Award, the Kansas City Jazz Ambassador's Award of Excellence, Elder Statesmen of Jazz Award, and Lifetime Achievement recipient of both the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame and Kansas City's CODA Jazz Fund. Marilyn Maye and multiple Grammy Award-winner Pat Metheny were named Official Jazz Legends by The American Jazz Museum - joining such greats as Count Basie, Big Joe Turner and the immortal Charlie Bird Parker. Marilyn Maye's place in popular music history was assured when The Arts Council of The Smithsonian Institution selected the 110 Best American Compositions of the Twentieth Century. Then, from all of the recordings of each awarded composition, they went on to choose the best single performance of each song. As the result, such greats as Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, and Marilyn Maye (for her RCA Lamp Is Low recording of Lerner and Lane's "Too Late Now") emerged as the historic Best Performers of the Best Compositions of the Twentieth Century ... Just as Johnny Carson had said, The Best of The Best!
During and following her years of regular appearances on "The Tonight Show..." it became fashionable for major stars to casually announce that Marilyn Maye was 'the singer's singer.' While most performers regarded an appearance on "TheTonight Show..." as a major career-break, Maye had a standing invitation - carte blanche. Johnny Carson nicknamed her “Super-Singer," in the early years she would appear with him in Las Vegas, and many one-night performances in large venues. After stating he doesn’t write liner notes he said, “I can write Marilyn’s in a single line, I call her Super Singer”. He allowed this to appear on her fifth RCA album.
A few thematic shows she performs regularly are "Marilyn Maye Her Way, A Tribute to Sinatra" played to a full house at Kansas City’s Historic Folly Theater in 2005. Additional presentations of "Her Way" include Galveston's Grand 1894 Opera House, Tulsa’s Performing Arts Center, Omaha’s Joslyn Art Museum, and the Lauridsen Theater at Lake Arts Center at Lake Okoboji, Iowa. "A Tribute to Johnny Carson," her 'show of show- stoppers;' "Two Legends, One Night Only," the great lyrics of Cole Porter, "Maye Sings Ray," classics sung by the late Ray Charles, and "An Evening with Marilyn Maye,". She has appeared for the last two years (2005-2006) at New York's renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center as a special guest of The Mabel Mercer Society, and at New York's popular, new Metropolitan Room. She appeared in-concert, to a crowd estimated at ten thousand, headlining Kansas' 2005 outdoor concert series “Jazz in the Woods.”
Today, Maye is working clubs, concerts, theaters, and private celebrations. The rave reviews, her singing, her wit, the fun she brings on stage, her energy and her love for the business continues.
She performs with the finest musicians from various areas throughout the United States. Each of these presentations provide a sense of excitement and a superb performance.
Among all of the superlatives, the reviews that, one would imagine, couldn't be topped - perhaps the most simple and eloquent Marilyn Maye accolade came in a single line from Carson... As she finished one of her show-stopping appearances on "The Tonight Show…", turning to his nightly audience of millions, Johnny said, “and that, young singers - is the way it’s done.”