The Big 4-0

Coinciding with her 40th birthday, singer Genevieve Marentette has commandeered Jazz club The Reservoir Lounge for her 2nd fund-raiser on Sunday night. Once again, an all-female house band, spontaneously named The Health Gap Band, kept things tight and hopping. It was an evening of great discovery for me. Marentette's female friends, professional singers one and all, could blow away all those mopey indie/alternative boys and most of the mainstream pop singers without even trying.

The first set was all originals while the second had jazz and soul standards. There were bluesy grit (Heather Luckhart, Irene Torres), 60s throwback (Tia Brazda, Elise Legrow), pure tones (Jocelyn Barth, Jessica Lalonde), brassy musical theatre (June Garber, Barbara Lee), and soulful R&B (Lydia Persaud, Dione Taylor). With these singers and a whole bunch more, not only were the main vocals wonderful, but the impromptu backup harmonies (with whomever wanted to jump in for a particular song) were sweet and rich. As for the birthday girl, Marentette had quite a set of pipes herself. And probably inherited from her mother, as the older version also came on stage a few times to help out.