Cabaret
SF EXAMINER, January 1978
Tuesday nights at Chez Jacques, 1390 California St., now belong to Glenda Glayzer, a torch singer with the vocal power of a flame-thrower.
She’s known to habitues of “Beach Blanket Babyon Goes Bananas,” in which she did a 2 1/2 -year stint as the vivacious brunette who never failed to raise the roof with her blazing rendition of “Am I Blue?”
Glayzer’s big, stunning voice is both an asset and debit. I think she should realize that the room is too small for the volume, emotional intensity and hard sell that she puts into her songs. And I’m not sure that she even needs a mike. She’s a very accomplished singer with a remarkable instrument that emits a rich, true tone.
Glayzer bears down on a dozen or so songs, giving nearly all of them a blues coloration, including Charles Strouse’s rosy “Tomorrow” from the musical, “Annie”. It’s an interesting shtick, and it’s certainly novel to hear “Ole Man River” delivered as a torch song by a female voice.
In calmer, more effective moments, Glayzer enthralls the audience with “Can’t Help Lovin That Man,” and more original ballads such as Holly Near’s “Coming Home” and Jeff Langley’s “My Heart Belongs to Me.”
But her heart obviously belongs to show tunes, and she does well with Kander and Ebb’s “And All That Jazz” (“Chicago”), and with an engaging pair of “West Side Story” tunes done in German. Glayzer appeared in German productions of American musicals in Nuremberg and Vienna.
The entertainment at this club modeled after the informal Paris cabaret changes nightly. And the price is right–only $2 cover and no drink minimum. Most people just drop in, but dinner reservations are advised.
–Stanley Eichelbaum
