Claudia Hommel - Paris in the Jazz Age (2000)

About the recording: The 28-page liner notes are chock-full of lyrics, translations, illustrations and commentary! The cover photo, by the way, is of Margot Webb and Hal Norton at the Ambassador Ballroom, mid 1930s. This album was inspired by the Smithsonian traveling exhibit 'The Jazz Age in Paris: 1910-1940' and based on a cabaret concert commissioned to animate the exhibit in 1998. Created by Bob Moreen and Claudia Hommel, the show met with acclaim in New Orleans at the cabaret Le Chat Noir and the Louisiana State Museum, at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, PA, Duke University and other schools from coast to coast. Claudia Hommel is best known for her cabaret concerts of French and American songs celebrating Paris, a theme she has developed in her recordings of 'Paris/Paree', 'Paris in the Jazz Age' and 'Romance Language' (all available here and at her website). Not to be limited to the rôle of French chanteuse, 'Claudia is a gifted and uniquely versatile artist, with a wide range of rôles demanding deep emotional commitment or zany satirical high-jinks and everything in between.' says her mentor, actor and director Alvin Epstein. 'She is at once sexy and sophisticated, stunning in an Audrey Hepburn sort of way,' says North Shore Magazine. Hommel has found her match in Bob Moreen. The Chicago Sun-Times calls him, 'A special, eclectic piano player.' The Chicago Tribune describes him as, 'An impressive singer in his own right...the complete entertainer'. To top it off, Hommel and Moreen are joined by guest artist, Patrick Holland, music director, pianist and conductor on Broadway; for television; and as educator from New York University, to Roosevelt University. He serves on the boards of the Grace Welsh International Prize for Piano and the World Old-Time Piano-Playing Competition.