Here's an unexpected trending topic this spring: Musicians in their 90s celebrating birthday concerts.
Country legend Willie Nelson turned 90 last month with two nights of all-star shows featuring the likes of Neil Young and Margo Price at the Hollywood Bowl.
Minneapolis piano stalwart Cornbread Harris observed his 96th birthday in April with one of his regular Sunday dinnertime gigs at Palmer's, a Minneapolis dive bar.
And in March, just days before hitting 95, cabaret queen Marilyn Maye headlined for the first time at New York's prestigious Carnegie Hall and reportedly received 12 standing ovations.
Maye returned to Crooner's in Fridley on Thursday for the opening night of what has become an annual May engagement (she returns Friday through Sunday). As always, she was covered in sequins from shoulder to toe, topped with her impeccable Angela Lansbury 'do. But something was out of place.
"Is there phlegm in Minneapolis?" she asked after a 10-minute opening medley of Cole Porter tunes. "Pollen?
"Everyone clear their throats," she urged, because she was having a problem.
"It's Flemish country," shouted one wag in the audience.
"That's a good one," smiled Maye, who knows a zinger when she hears one, because she delivers so many herself.
Indeed, Maye had a little problem with a frog or phlegm or infiltrator in her throat, rendering her voice a little deeper and huskier than usual. But that's not going to stop someone who teaches master classes in performance.
She just rolled with it, parrying with the audience and her three musicians, whom she led through show tunes and standards. Actually, they weren't called standards when Maye started singing them. They were simply new songs when she was a young singer.
As she pointed out, she recorded and released "Cabaret" as a single before the show went to Broadway in 1966. That led to a Grammy nomination for best new artist, which she lost to Tom Jones. Not that she was new; the Kansas native had been singing professionally since age 14 in 1942 on a radio show in Des Moines.
At Crooners, she talked a bit about her career, being discovered by Steve Allen in a Kansas City club ("He wrote 8,000 songs," she said, "and some are really good… I'm kidding") and then making 76 appearances, a record for a singer, on "The Tonight Show" in the Johnny Carson era.
Not a bad life. "I'm too old to be humble," the self-deprecating vocalist cracked.
Even if she couldn't get her voice to do exactly what she wanted, Maye poured her heart into lyrics, whether with a smooth conversational approach, a warm croon, a bluesy touch or a big Broadway-like finish. Even if it was a selection she's sung thousands of times, Maye felt these lyrics, the thrill of love, the pain of heartbreak, the sadness of a rainy day.
More importantly, Maye made the audience feel good because she is the consummate entertainer. The full house cheered, whistled and whooped after many numbers, including "Teach Me Tonight" in honor of Teachers Week, the bluesy "No Bad News" and a medley of songs about spring.
She oozed old-school show business and timeless fun. She still does Rockette-like leg kicks — three of them during her signature "It's Today," from "Mame," her pre-encore finale. So what if she did them while holding on to a grand piano? Her timing on jokes — whether pat ones or ad libs — was flawless. The quick and sharp Maye had as much fun as the audience.
And she knows how to thread an extemporized bit throughout a 75-minute show.
"I wake up singing like this," she improvised as a sung intro to "It's a Most Unusual Day." Then she paused and instructed: "Everyone clear your throats."
Unusual day, yes, because her voice wasn't at its best. Unusually entertaining, though. Because that's the usual with the always Marvelous Marilyn Maye.
Marilyn Maye
When: 5 & 8 p.m. Fri. & Sat., 4 p.m. Sun.
Where: Crooners, 6161 Hwy 65, Fridley
Tickets: $55-$65, croonermn.com