Aubrey Logan: This Could Be the Start of Something Big
Review by Brett R. Henry
Big things are often found hidden in small packages, and this couldn’t have been any truer than on the evening of August 13th when Aubrey Logan graced the stage of Studio City, California’s E Spot Lounge; delivering a very memorable performance that contained the WOW! Factor and leaving many audience members (this one included) utterly speechless.
She’s a singer. She’s a musician (playing the trombone with fluid dexterity). She’s a songwriter. She’s also a genuinely very nice person. Is there anything that this rising star from Seattle, Washington and graduate of the prestigious Berklee College of Music cannot do? I honestly doubt it. Evidence? Among her accomplishments, Aubrey has won the Audience’s Choice and Jury’s First Place Awards at the Montreux Jazz Festival Voice Competition in Switzerland and has performed at the 57th Grammy Awards with Pharrell Williams.
Opening the show with her version of George Gershwin’s ‘Fascinating Rhythm’ (followed immediately by a change in gears with Taylor Swift’s ‘Bad Blood’), Aubrey led the audience on the smoothest (yet, still thrill-packed) rollercoaster ride of music styles imaginable. With a singing voice reminiscent of Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli – but still very distinctly her own – she dished out R&B, ballads, love songs, and even a taste of light opera with Bizet’s ‘Habanera’ (from ‘Carmen’). Interspersed were an audience-participation rendition of Bobby Troup’s ‘Route 66’, a medley of ‘My Boyfriend’s back’ by the Angels and ‘Lips Are Movin” by Meghan Trainor, plus her original songs ‘No Girl’, ‘Starting to Believe’, ‘Go’, ‘High Place’, ‘Impossible’ and ‘Gossip’. The evening also included The Carpenters’ ‘Superstar’ (masterfully blended with George Michael’s ‘Careless Whisper’), which the late Karen Carpenter undoubtedly would have approved of with a heavenly wink and a nod. The show very fittingly closed with David Mann’s ‘In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning’.
Masterfully backed by pianist / arranger Carey Frank, bass player Ahmet Turkmenoglu, and vocalist (and drummer) Donald Turner, Aubrey’s performance was one of the best that The Duchess of Something or Another and I had experienced in a very long time. Sarah was still talking about the show over breakfast the next morning. Aubrey has come a long way since her performance last year on MITM’s ‘Martini Nights – Upstairs at Vitello’s’ television pilot. There was plenty of maturity in both her voice and showmanship on Thursday night. Aubrey Logan hit the ball out of the park and into the next town with her show. Keep a sharp eye (and both ears) on this one. We haven’t heard the last of her yet. This is just the BEGINNING.’