Gabi Epstein, Show-Off

I don't do artist profiles often. In fact, this is only my third after nearly two years of writing for (Cult)ure. It's not that I'm opposed to doing them, but when the requests do come in, I tend to be a little choosy. I want to take myself out of my comfortable music listening box and try something new. Sometimes it's something brand new (like metal), and sometimes, as is the case with Gabi Epstein, it's something I'm familiar with, but don't indulge in a whole lot.

Epstein, a Toronto native, has put together a stuffing debut album that is just the right mix of jazz, lounge, and cabaret. Her vocals are strong, her delivery both heartfelt and sultry, and the choice ofsong selections makes this eleven-track debut the perfect type of background music for a dinner party, a romantic evening for two, or for solo chill-out time.

It's difficult to pick out a single track, or even multiple tracks that stand out on Show Off. Yes, that sounds like a major cop-out on my part, but the material is so consistent from beginning to end that it sounds and feels like a seamless whole. It is interesting that the song "You're Gonna Hear From Me" is the opening track. Lyrically speaking, it's a song that I would expect to be an album closer, especially the way that Esptein belts out some of the final notes, yet it was curiously, and perhaps deliberately, bumped to the beginning as a way of grabbing the audience, telling them to listen up and pay attention for the remainder of the album: a brilliant tactic actually, when you stop to think about it.

A personal favourite of mine is her cover of Jann Arden's "Good Mother." As an ardent Arden fan, I have a particular soft spot for this song, and Gabi Epstein, in her own unique interpretation, gives it just as much meaning and soul as the original, without departing too far from its style. It's a touching tribute, and comes with a lot of meaning for Epstein, who has said she was "picking the songs that 'show off' different aspects of her personality" for this album, and that "Good Mother" is a song she loves singing; it allows her to "sing about my family who I am extremely close with." She also describes it as one of the greatest songs ever, an endorsement that I imagine would cause Jann to blush.

The influence of "Cruella De Vil" at first may raise a few eyebrows, but this big, brassy, lounge version that Epstein pulls off makes this one sultry track, and allows her to show off her vocal chops at the same time. When I first saw the song on the track listing, I was a bit sceptical: a Disney cartoon song on what's supposed to be a very contemporary jazz album? Doesn't seem to work on paper, but you have to hear this song to believe it. It works. Perfectly.

Epstein's musical influences are typical fot the jazz/cabaret world, but that does not mean she has all of those influences for the same reasons as everyone else. She has named everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Barbra Streisand as artistic influences. Unusually, she cites Canadian rocker Hawksley Workman as well, stating that Workman is "the closest thing to a musical theatre performer that the folk world can get," and that his live performances have really taught her how to perform on stage as well. Epstein says that Fitzgerald was her first big jazz influence, while Streisand not only gave her an appreciation for cabaret, but the importance of selecting a strong opening number for an album, which obviously contributed to "You're Gonna Hear From Me" showing up first on the CD (something that I imagine Streisand herself would do).

Any way you cut it, Show Off is an excellent showcase for a new voice in the jazz and cabaret worlds. Whether it's musical theatre or on stage as a solo performer in her own right, Gabi Epstein is a fresh, much-welcomed voice to the genre as well as the music landscape as a whole. I'll be enjoying and sharing this album with friends and family for some time to come.

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