Concert Jazz

In a program consisting of a group of antique Italian pieces, of modern Austrian and German songs, of modern British and modern French songs, Mme. Eva Gauthier, "creature of endless inspirations," placed a group of "modern American pieces" -- jazz. She sang a large group of jazz compositions ranging from the archaic Alexander's Ragtime Band to the almost contemporary Do It Again. This is the first time, to the present reviewer's knowledge, that a serious artist, and one of the most scholarly sort, has included in a formal concert the sliding, slippery rhythms of jazz. The famed popular composer, Arthur Gershwin, was at the piano for the "modern American" group. That vouched for the jazzy authenticity of the piano rhythms. But how did a severely schooled soprano like Eva Gauthier among such rhythmic perversities? She did surprisingly well. Her voice was much too good for jazz. You will occasionally find good voices singing jazz in musical comedies and in vaudeville, but they are always frayed, tired, careless. Mme. Gauthier's phrasing was neat and expressive. The fine artist simply would not down. The final phrase of Do It Again, for instance, she sang with the suavest expression. The test of the experiment lay in the response of the audience. The audience was vociferously enthusiastic.