Paul Marinaro: The Art of the Song

Vocalist Paul Marinaro brings masterful phrasing, jazz sensibilities and swing, and deep emotional connection to the American Songbook. Praised by Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune as possessing “one of the most beautiful vocal instruments in the business today,” Chicago vocalist Paul Marinaro has built a career around a deeply personal approach to song—grounded in the jazz tradition and the great American songbook, while continually looking beyond both. That foundation is perhaps most personal in his acclaimed debut recording, Without a Song, a tribute to his father and to the standards Marinaro grew up hearing him sing. In recent years, three ambitious and critically acclaimed projects—Not Quite Yet, The Bowie Project with the Metropolitan Jazz Octet, and his latest release, Mood Ellington, a sweeping 25-song reimagining of the music of Duke Ellington—have taken him from deeply personal readings of the American songbook to unexpected reinterpretations of David Bowie and an expansive exploration of one of the great bodies of work in American music. For this intimate duo concert, Marinaro and his longtime pianist Tom Vaitsas bring this broad repertoire into its most elemental setting: voice and piano. The program will draw generously from the great American songbook and Marinaro’s recordings; songs from unexpected corners brought together through his style. Whether approaching a familiar standard or discovering something far outside the traditional jazz repertoire, Marinaro places lyric, melody, improvisation, and storytelling at the heart of the performance—finding new ways into songs both familiar and new.