Marin Mazzie - Make Your Own Kind Of Music - Live At 54 Below

Marin Mazzie is a gift. As a star of the Broadway stage, with exceptional turns in "Ragtime," "Passion," and the recent adaptation of Woody Allen's "Bullets Over Broadway," she continues to build a reputation and resume that plant her in the world of performing divas such as Peters and LuPone.

Her latest recording is from her solo evening at 54 Below, which continues to provide performers on the Great White Way the opportunity to "tell their story" in a musical forum for their appreciative fans. Broadway Records presents "Make Your Own Kind of Music," an hour-long concert that allows Mazzie to take us into her early beginnings; an evening dominated by 1970s pop hits, but wonderfully presented by the chanteuse and her �ber-talented quartet.

The actress begins her set with an untraditional, bluesy rendition of the Rosemary Clooney standard, "Come On-a My House," interspersed with a comic setup of her growing up in Rockford, Illinois, with her parents and two siblings. Inspired fills by her band, led by guitarist Nate Brown, pianist/musical director, Joseph Thalken, and bassist/arranger Pete Donovan, color in the remainder of the purple and lavender musical landscape.

After presenting a bold arrangement of Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" with only percussion providing her accompaniment, Mazzie truly hits her stride with a string of classic teeny-bopper mainstays from the era, including the Partridge Family's "I Think I Love You," the Mann/Weil penned title song, the Burt Bachrach hit "Anyone Who Had A Heart," "Midnight at the Oasis," and Carly Simon's "That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be." Mazzie sounds truly in heaven delivering the gems that coincide with the dreams of a midwestern girl aspiring to grow up and sing into more than her hairbrush. She has certainly succeeded in that goal.

"Make Your Own Kind of Music" (Live at 54 Below)
Marin Mazzie
CD and digital downloads
Broadway Records