McGovern shows her octives

McGovern shows her octaves
Unleashed: Singer performs Big Band era

Jen Graves; The News Tribune

Many singers refer to the thing in their own throats as "the voice," rather than "my voice." It's the Royal V.

Maureen McGovern doesn't, and it's almost blasphemy.

What an instrument!

She packed it into a scarf and carried it on the plane with her to perform with the Tacoma Symphony to a sold-out crowd at the Pantages Theater Saturday night.

And "Sing, Sing, Sing" is just what she did. She unleashed - though I could have taken more scat, more outrageously high notes, more showoff - her 41/2-octave coloratura soprano on the Big Band-era composers of the 1930s and '40s, including Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen and Ella Fitzgerald.

McGovern brought her own trio. But she was plainly the main event, and her jazzy voice masterfully, almost athletically, matched a blaring trumpet and a golden-burbling saxophone note for note, or beat for beat in harmony. You've heard a sax do a jazz solo, right? She sounds just like that - just as precise, just as controlled.

McGovern turned the Pantages into a cabaret, dancing in her rhinestone-studded-heel shoes and telling tales. She covered diverse ground, including "Fever," "Caravan," "I'll Be Seeing You," "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and "A Tisket, A Tasket."

The one injustice of the evening was overbearing mic-ing. She didn't need as much as she had, and when she stopped to sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" a cappella, the hum of the microphone remained.

What strikes a listener most about McGovern is the ease of her singing. With that range, she never has to resort to falsetto, and even in the upper reaches, The Voice maintains its color and fullness. Her style is not particularly distinctive, but, simply put, she can do what others can't.

Of course, there's got to be a "Morning After." McGovern encored with remarkable sincerity on the tune from "The Poseidon Adventure" that made her famous in the 1970s.

The buttoned-down mood was set early by conductor Harvey Felder, who joked loosely with the audience during the concert's first half. Unfortunately, the orchestra was off, also sounding loose in parts.

The violins were muddy in Joseph Strauss' "PlappermŠulchen (Chatterbox) Polka, Op. 245," with too much slide also in Aram Khachaturain's "Spartacus Ballet Suite" adagio. In that same piece, concertmaster Svend Ronning delivered a surprisingly overbright solo, and there was pitch imprecision throughout the orchestra.

- - -

* Staff writer Jen Graves covers the arts. Reach her at 253-597-8568 or jen.graves@mail.tribnet.com.