Bob Dorough Trio

Evergreen Carriage House, Nov. 19

1999-12-01-feedback2

We're celebrating a couple of firsts here tonight," Bob Dorough told his audience. "This is the time I've ever had a gig in Baltimore, and I understand this is the first time they've had jazz at the Evergreen House."

Both events were long overdue. Dorough is 75 years old, and he's one of the few vocalists who can say, "Here's a song I recorded with Miles Davis," as Dorough did before singing "Nothing Like You." He has written songs for Mel Torme and Diana Krall; he has played piano for Lenny Bruce and Sugar Ray Robinson. He's one of the last surviving members of the Beat Generation, and he has the Kerouac-ian, beat-ific smile to prove it.

The Evergreen House is 141 years old, and even its carriage house, where the concerts are held, has the dark wood paneling and hand-carved details of 19th-century robber-baron elegance. Putting together neglected jazz artists and overlooked Baltimore buildings is the whole purpose of the Jazz in Cool Places series (co-produced by City Paper contributing writer James D. Dilts), which began its third season with Dorough's show. As always, the evening began with a short but useful architectural talk and then quickly moved to the music.

Dorough's graying, thin hair was pulled back in a long ponytail, and he sat on a phone book atop the piano bench. Backed by guitarist Steve Berger and bassist Pat O'Leary—each younger than some of the songs Dorough has written—the leader alternated his own compositions with jazz standards by the likes of Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer.

Like such contemporaries as Dave Frishberg, Chet Baker, and Bobby Troup (and like such heirs as Randy Newman and Tom Waits), Dorough doesn't have a very strong or very reliable voice. But like these others, he captivates his audiences with the wit of his lyrics and the instinctive phrasing of his storytelling delivery.

When he satirized wannabe bohemians in his own composition, "I'm Hip," his impersonation of a smug poseur was so perfect that it didn't even matter if he hit every note. When he sang another original, "Right on My Way Home," the title of his latest album, he spat out the brisk parade of puns and punch lines with the ease of a practiced comedian. When he tackled "Moon River," he began with a stream-of-consciousness rap that touched on Breakfast at Tiffany's, Andy Williams, Huckleberry Finn, and Dorough's Arkansas roots before transforming this dreamy waltz into a finger-snapping 4/4 swing number.

Dorough waited until the end of the show to reveal his other career. For most of the '70s and '80s, he was the house songwriter for ABC-TV's Schoolhouse Rock. And when he sang two Schoolhouse favorites, "Three Is a Magic Number" and "Conjunction Junction," the Baltimore audience required little prompting to join in. How could they resist? These songs were every bit as catchy, hip, and quirky as the songs Dorough wrote for Miles Davis.

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