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Posted on Mon, Mar 29, 2010 : 5:35 a.m.

Think spring with Susan Chastain's birthday show at Kerrytown

By Roger LeLievre

Susan Chastain, jazz vocalist and impresario of the now-defunct Firefly Club, is having a birthday — and she’ll be marking the occasion in song.

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Susan Chastain

Chastain will join Paul Keller (string bass) and Steve Richko (piano) for two performances of “Susan Brings Spring” Saturday at Kerrytown Concert House. Seasonal fare, and maybe some tunes about baseball, will be on the program.

“I’ll be doing ‘April Showers,’ ‘You Must Believe in Spring,’ ‘It Might as Well Be Spring,’ ‘Spring will be a Little Late This Year’ — and for the rest, you’ll have to be a little bit surprised,” she said.

KCH will transform into a nightclub for the occasion, and to make the atmosphere even more authentic, a cash bar will be set up.

“It will be nice and low-key, a cabaret kind of setting, and I never get to do that,” she added. “It’s always big band, Dixieland or the sextet. This will be a little different for me and I am looking forward to it.”

These days, Chastain is spending most of her time in St. Augustine, Fla., where she can be near her 1-year-old grandson Atreyu and help her daughter-in-law with babysitting.

Although she doesn’t get a chance to perform with them as often these days, she remains a member of the Paul Keller Orchestra (catch them every Monday night at Ypsilanti’s Keystone Underground), and Paul Klinger’s Easy Street Jazz Band (which plays every Tuesday from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at Zal Gaz Grotto).


PREVIEW

Susan Brings Spring

Who: Paul Keller (string bass), Steve Richko (piano), Susan Chastain (vocals).

What: Susan Chastain, jazz vocalist and Firefly Club owner, celebrates her birthday by performing spring songs from the Great American Songbook.

When: 7 and 9 p.m. Saturday, April 3.

Where: Kerrytown Concert House, 415 North Fourth Avenue.

How much: $10-$30. Reservations at 734-769-2999 or Kerrytown Concert House web site.

One song that Keller hopes Chastain will perform is “Van Lingle Mungo,” a classic baseball song written by David Frishberg. “It’s a list of mostly players from the past — the music says things that words can’t say. It puts a poignant edge on the whole list. … spring songs, baseball, they go hand in hand,” said Keller.

Keller has been playing with Chastain for nearly 18 years, he recalled.

“Susan was a bartender and manager at the old Bird of Paradise (jazz club); she was a self-admitted jazz hater until she started working at the jazz club and we converted her. We brought her out from behind the bar, she joined us on the stage in the jam session. Little by little she became a student of the Great American Songbook, and started digging into Jerome Kern, Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael.”

Chastain opened the Firefly Club when the Bird of Paradise vacated its initial home. The Firefly, after its own move, closed its doors permanently in August of 2009. Chastain’s newest project is setting up a non-profit organization called The Jazz Greenhouse, which focuses on jazz education for young musicians, and presenting jazz in non-traditional venues.

There was no hesitation when asked which birthday she is observing.

“I’m 56; no more double nickel,” she laughed. “(And) I am totally excited about coming back to Michigan, especially in springtime.”


Roger LeLievre is a freelance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com.