Review: Julie Benko & Jason Yeager Celebrate HAND IN HAND Album Release at Birdland

Julie Benko took the night off from Funny Girl on Broadway to sing for seventy minutes at Birdland alongside her husband Jason Yeager, as the twosome celebrated (officially) the release of their new album HAND IN HAND on Club44 Records. Although Ms. Benko has a previous album, this new CD is the twosome's first one as a duo, as a boy-girl act, and even as they are a boy-girl act, Julie is doing all the singing, while Jason provides all the musical artistry for which he has become known, around the world. The jazz pianist and the belter make for a great musical team, both on the CD and in person, and although the album is a genuine joy to listen to, seeing Jason and Julie live and in person provides context that listeners won't get just from the album. You see, Jason Yeager and Julie Benko are adorable. Revision: they are A DOR ABLE.

The music during their HAND IN HAND release party last night was wonderful, as well it should be, because both Benko and Yeager are consummate musical artists, but the relationship between the two sweetened the deal to the point that it (kind of) took center stage. The way Julie gazes at Jason when he is playing, the way he keeps a watchful Musical Director's eye on her when she is singing, it's a genuine pleasure to see them operate, in person, as both a couple and a performing couple. At the end of the day, though, a music act at Birdland is about the music, and should be judged upon the musical performances, not the personal relationship of the people on the stage. And the musical performance presented last night at Birdland was simply marvelous.

Jason Yeager is a master musician who Musical Directed the evening with enviable skill, and the Birdland powers that be had the kindness to position the piano so that the audience could see his fingers fly over the keys of the piano and of his Nord Electro 3 - of course, that meant his back was to the audience throughout most of the program but in between songs Mr. Yeager turned to face the crowd as he and Ms. Benko shared their duties as hosts, emcees, and tellers of trivia, discussing the process through which they created their album while in quarantine, the artistic choices, the philosophies and thought that went into each track on the album, one that ranges in genre from Broadway to rock and roll, and all of which was presented last night, along with a wild card or two, like the famed Fanny Brice tune "Second Hand Rose" which Julie Benko performed to perfection, having been contractually obligated to sing no songs from Funny Girl other than "People," which appears on the CD in a fascinating new exploration that the Yeagers created for the album. All of Julie and Jason's collaborative efforts designed to give these famous songs new life are successful, and the treatments they have created are ideally suited to Benko's individual instrument. Benko may be belting the score of Funny Girl eight shows a week but at Birdland and on their album, her vocal quality is more relaxed, easy-going, with a mellifluous quality that makes it sound as pure as powder snow on a mountain top, and even as she sings in her pristine soprano, Julie Benko swoops down in range for some deliriously delicious throaty low notes, and some bonafide rock and roll gravel on a particularly pleasing Janis Joplin number. And for the members of the audience who craved that Broadway belt, a little Frank Loesser did the trick, while providing each of the band members some electrifying solos. Jason and Julie spoke at length about the fact that they, themselves, made all of the musical accompaniment on the album Hand In Hand, but for this show they wanted a full sound, to recreate all of their recording studio efforts, hence the brilliance of Patrick Leslie on Woodwinds, Michael O'Brien on bass, and Jay Sawyer on drums. The Benko Yeagers spared no expense in their efforts to make exceptional music - all five of the artists on the stage last night were on their A Game.

Musically speaking, the Yeagers and their team presented one great number after another, with particular standouts coming from the Yeager mind personal - Jason's composition "Sweet Pea" is a tribute to Billy Strayhorn and it was impossible to keep visceral images of the legend, of Harlem, of the forties, and of "Lush Life" off of the brain, while "Just Begun" (a song Yeager penned for Benko to walk down the aisle on their wedding day) is the romantic stuff of which dreams are made. These two numbers and the duo's spin on "Another Life" (from The Bridges of Madison County) were deeply resonant for this writer, but the entire sold-out Birdland house went hook-line-and-sinker for Joplin's "Mercedes Benz" - a song the couple admitted they did not know until some friends requested it for their Quarantunes series on Facebook. From start to finish, Julie and Jason gave their audience a great musical show last night, and it should be a fun and interesting journey to watch, as they claim their place as one of the industry's most engaging duo acts. If this reporter could offer one tiny tip: Mr. and Mrs. Yeager could spend a little time refining the spoken portion of their program - a little structure never hurt anybody - but they are to be commended (in the extreme) for the fact that Julie Benko knows all her words. Too often today club artists think it is acceptable to read their words off of a music stand or device, but these two lovely and professional artists hit the Birdland stage ready to go, which allowed for complete and total immersion into the storytelling, and that's where Julie's acting training came in - speaking personally, there is a corner of this writer's notebook from last night that says, simply: THE ACTING! ... and it's underlined. Julie Benko is a singing actress, and it doesn't matter if she is telling someone else's tale on Broadway eight times a week or showcasing a gallery of stories with her favorite co-author just to her right, making sure the music for her storytelling is the best that it can be: Benko has come to tell stories. Yeager has come to make music.

They have arrived in style, and with success supreme.

Julie Benko & Jason Yeager HAND IN HAND is available on all digital platforms and in CD form on their websites and that of Club44 records:

Julie Benko's WEBSITE

Jason Yeager's WEBSITE

Club44's WEBSITE.

Julie and Jason will play Hand In Hand at 54 Below on November 7th at nine-thirty pm - get reservations HERE.

Other great shows play Birdland every night. See the Birdland website HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

Visit the Stephen Mosher website HERE.