Press

“She is cute as a silent film girl-next-door and talented as the likes of Bette Midler and Kristen Chenoweth.”          The Village Voice

“One of those performers who can remind a listener of many predecessors, yet instantly seems newly-minted, someone you haven’t seen before.  there’s something of a dated charm about Grabianowski, but at other times she evoked Janis Joplin as the late rock ‘n’ roll blues icon might have warbled after downing one or two Quaaludes. She suggested someone so steeped in a pop-singing past that she registers as unique. You could say she’s in the Kristin Chenoweth tradition. But that would type her, and, really, she already defiantly resists being fitted into anyone else’s mold.”   The Huffington Post

“Other highlights included young Danielle Grabianowski, who had the unenviable position of following (Elaine) Stritch.  She made the most of it with her ‘30s-era vocals yet contemporary appeal.  A complete original, she wowed the crowd.”  Edge New York

“Two words and two words only.  Danielle Grabianowski.  Ms. Grabianowski has the qualified edge;  rarely has a contender in the Female Debut category proved so memorable in the last two decades.”  NitelifeExchange.com

“Danielle Grabianowski offered a unique vocal quality that seemed part Edith Piaf and part Janis Joplin.  She has an arresting quality.”  TalkinBroadway.com

“Miss Grabianowski has a captivationg sound, a disarming manner, a sparkele in her eyes and is a big spark of talent that is sure to spark interest.  With Flare  and fun, Danielle is retro and a mix of sassy, sly and sweet, a recipe mixed together to result in a combo that is delicious dynamite.”  NitelifeExchange.com

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BistroAwards.com – July 24, 2013

By Kevin Scott Hall

In her latest offering, an untitled show at The Duplex, sly and subversive songbird Danielle Grabianowski ignores the “rules” of cabaret (and gently pokes fun at them in her patter). Opening with a humorous French ditty, “Sympathique” (by Pink Martini’s China Forbes and Thomas Lauderdale), she provokes laughs without the usual wind-up of a big opening number or a song with a positive message. In the midst of the song, she speaks the English translation in a matter-of-fact way: “I don’t want to work/I don’t want to lunch/I only want to forget and so I smoke.” Her delivery adds much humor to her voicing of the character’s world-weariness.

By way of welcome the evening I attended, she told the audience that the show would have no theme—and also that she wanted to reveal her vulnerability right off the bat: “If this dress comes open, somebody please tell me,” she said, noting that at the last minute a bobby pin or the like had to be used to hold the dress together near the cleavage.

Grabianowski is one of the most talented newcomers to hit the scene in the last few years, at times evoking Billie Holliday or Norah Jones, but with her pop and blues sensibilities and a telltale flutter in her voice, she has her own unique sound. Although at times she resembles a young, daffy Lesley Ann Warren, she uses that persona to great effect while constantly surprising us with her smarts—her song choices, her interpretative abilities, and her slightly twisted take on life.

In fact, although she claims the show has no theme, her choices suggest a bit of the ’60s folk singer spirit in her. Her marvelous rendering of “People Are People” (Martin Gore), slowed down from the dancey Depeche Mode version from the ’80s, segues very nicely into one of the best versions I’ve heard of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught.” While her vocal delivery is lovely but not often showy, her precision with the lyric, combined with the mien and manner of a wise teacher, makes for strong, irrefutable statements. Another unusual, smart choice in the folk-message vein is “Two Kids” (Anais Mitchell). Told from the perspective of a child living in the Middle East trying to understand the hatred her father told her about, the lyric closes with the observation, “I saw this kid looking out from the window/ he didn’t look bad, he only looked scared.” Powerful stuff, made even more so by Grabianowski’s child-like demeanor and her inclusion of an Arabic poem that was given to Mitchell by the poet. Not something you hear every day.

She also offers selections of a less serious nature. A brilliant, minor-key arrangement of “You’re the One That I Want” (John Farrar, from the film version of Grease) shows us her sultry side. A mash-up of Oscar Levant, Billy Rose, and Mort Dixon’s “If You Want the Rainbow (You Must Have the Rain),” from 1928, and the Rihanna hit “Umbrella” (The Dream, Jay‑Z, Kuk Harrell, Christopher “Tricky” Stewart) works very well and is Grabianowski’s sunniest offering. She closes with “Bumble Bee” (Memphis Minnie), the closest she comes to a wailing blues number; her sweet disposition and the sexy double entendres in the song make an intoxicating mix.

Overall, Grabianowski’s talent enables her to pull off an evening of fairly obscure material, nearly all of it ballads. And although her considerable charm is ingratiating, a bit more structure to the show would make the endeavor better still. She seems very comfortable in her own skin, but I’d like to see her reach for some bigger moments—and by that I mean patter as well as song moments.

Musical director/pianist Nate Buccieri is swell, and he’s an amiable good sport to Grabianowski’s understated, playful commentary. His arrangements are terrific. What’s more, he supplies vocal harmonies, performs a bit of hand drumming on the edge of the piano, and even delivers a vocal turn of his own.

Grabianowski’s singular sound and interpretive skills cry out for a recording. I hope someone hears her and can facilitate such a project soon.

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Cabaret Scenes

By Lynn DiMenna

Add my name to the list of reviewers who have come under the seductive spell of 2010 Bistro Award winner and nominee for this year’s Female Debut MAC Award, doe-eyed Danielle Grabianowski.

She remained true to her show’s title and, like a young, blushing spring bride with cascading curls and pretty dress to match, dished out a mélange of “old and new, borrowed and blues” songs, all of which perfectly suited her eclectic musical sensibilities.

For example, Fred Fisher and Billy Rose’s 1928 hit “I’d Rather Be Blue Over You (Than Be Happy with Somebody Else)” was coupled with the more contemporary Regina Spektor’s “Summer in the City” and it worked! Her Maude Maggart-esque waif-like tremolo was equally effective on other songs from the Depression era like Jay Gorney and E.Y. Harburg’s “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?,” Try a Little Tenderness” (Woods/Campbell and Connelly) and Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh’s  “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” (including verse). Where Maggart and mentor, Andrea Marcovicci, use their hands for dramatic effect, with Grabianowski, it’s all about the eyes! She can be devilish or demure, innocent or firey depending on the mood of the song and her specific point of view.

She handled two additional contemporary odes, to haunted heartbreak and lost love respectively, with great emotional depth and solid vocal technique. Admittedly, Emily Saliers (Indigo Girls)’s “Ghost” was somewhat “out there” and difficult to follow, but Amanda McBroom’s “The Portrait” was delivered perfectly and was extremely moving. Her duets with musical soul mate and fellow Buffalonian, Nate Buccieri, were also winsome and entertaining! Buccieri provided such enthusiastic support to all her hooting, howling, cooing and cajoling that together they proved they “got a really good thing goin’ on!”

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Bistro Awards.com

By Roy Sander

Danielle Grabianowski is a fascinating singer and performer. Her voice is rather a combination of Billie Holiday and Jessica Dragonette—though every now and then her singing has a less stylized sound. (For you young’uns, unlike Jessica Rabbit, Ms. Dragonette was quite real, and not just drawn that way.) She is also an uncommon and uncommonly good actress, so her interpretations are not only strong and intelligently thought through, they are likely also to be unlike others you’ve heard. And her personality is delightfully and disarmingly off the wall and unpredictable. One has the feeling that God knows what she’ll come up with—or come out with. The young Bette Midler was like that.

In her debut solo show, directed by Lennie Watts, she demonstrates why she scored so highly in this year’s MetroStar Talent Challenge. (She was first runner-up.) Her rendition of “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” (Jay Gorney, E.Y. Harburg) is a good example. At the beginning, she beams with pride at her accomplishments (building a tower, etc.), then she becomes heartbreaking in her humbled state, reduced to pleading for money. Each of these attitudes is communicated subtly but with absolute clarity. Or “Try a Little Tenderness” (Harry Woods, Jimmy Campbell, Reg Connelly), which she performs with compassion, urgency, and above all, sincerity. It’s quite something. Her rendition of Amanda McBroom’s “The Portrait” is very strong—all the more powerful because she holds back a bit and doesn’t hit us over the head with the emotion. Her interpretation of Ray LaMontagne’s “Sugar Daddy” is similarly slightly understated, but she gets the point across—complete with attitude—and the reserve allows for interesting exploration.

A palpable sadness permeates her delivery of Bob Dylan’s “[Papa], You Been on My Mind.” and her performance of Raymond Taylor and Lester Judson’s “I Want to Be Evil” is appropriately playful and sassy. If someone so new can be said to have a signature song, Grabianowski’s is Memphis Minnie’s “Bumble Bee”; she delivers every innuendo and double entendre deliciously. She joins with musical director Nate Buccieri to sing Harry Warren and Al Dubin’s “Shuffle Off to Buffalo.” As you know, the jazz tradition is to state a melody as written, then to improvise variations; in this thoroughly winning arrangement, the straight version comes in the middle. Speaking of Buccieri, not only does he support Grabianowski with wonderfully full piano accompaniment, he also radiates enthusiasm and joy. He’s clearly, and infectiously, on the singer’s side—a disposition he displayed all during his stint as musical director for the MetroStar Talent Challenge.

Grabianowski’s patter is quirky and funny—her recreation of a conversation with her Italian grandmother is hilarious—and but for one misstep, it provides splendid lead-ins for the songs. The mistake is the Bono political quote that precedes “Try a Little Tenderness”; not only is it a very silly set-up for the song, it reflects a dangerously naïve view of international relations and security.

As is the case with so many shows, there were problems with the opening number—with the first two numbers, actually; at least there were on opening night. “This Is All Very New to Me” (Albert Hague, Arnold Horwitt) needed a clearer vision; also, it bore scant resemblance to the familiar song from Plain and Fancy—was the culprit the vocal arrangement? Was it even the same song? And she sang Jack White’s “We’re Going to Be Friends” well enough, but, uncharacteristically, her rendition needed an acting choice, a slant. From the third number on, however, all was right with the world.

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Cabaret Scenes

By Rob Lester

Whether winking or wide-eyed—with wonder or delight or mischief—I found Danielle Grabianowski immensely watchable. She has that sensibility of an audacious little girl trying on Mommy’s high heels or a storybook character’s attitude. So, I was bewitched, not bothered or bewildered, when she “borrowed” (as her act’s title suggests) different mindsets or perspectives. “I Want to Be Evil” worked for me because she set it up as the rebellious fantasy of a child with a constrictive, restrictive religious upbringing—which, she explained, is exactly what she had. Her daring to be dubious was cemented with a feisty, nose-thumbing “It Ain’t Necessarily So.” Her sense of self in her patter is winning. Winner of last year’s 1930s Idol contest (she does have a curious other-decade quaintness) and first runner-up in this summer’s MetroStar competition, she wisely retained the latter’s skillful pianist/Musical Director, Nate Buccieri, as her own. With ebullient, supportive Nate as mate, they duetted joyfully on “Shuffle Off to Buffalo.” Danielle has a distinctive timbre and vibrato and some posturing (for a song’s effect) that might be distancing or daunting for some. An