Celia Berk: For The Record is an evening of songs that are not that well known. Once you hear the music though, the sounds are oh so familiar, the melodies already have a place in your heart, and Celia’s vocal range will take you into the time of the heyday of jazz when life was not fraught with phones, text, emails, instagrams, and all the distractions that keep us from the beauty of the moments of everyday magic.

This is Celia Berk’s ode to the unknown songs of maestros and quiet creators. Celia said, “For the record, I love finding hidden gems by great songwriters, and I love recording them with great collaborators who help me reveal each song’s special facets.” That search and its treasures are the successful accomplishment that became her latest cabaret performance at 54 Below.

Ms. Berk, with her daring and sensational collaborator and arranger Bálint Varga, dives into those hidden gems and brings them to life with precision and a musical wisdom that is joyful and perfect. Perfect because we are with Celia Berk and her wonderful accompanying artists traveling back into the time when jazz ruled the airwaves and voices like Berk’s with its range and depth created a beautiful melodic tapestry of bucolic harmonies that is both haunting and vulnerable.

Or in other words, an evening of calming cabaret songs that made me think of smoke-filled rooms with men and women in hats and furs dominated by Celia’s lovely talent and humble, beautiful presence. Berk allows for the lyrics to be heard and felt. She is telling the story of the music as if she were a character in the story. These hidden gem songs, with their accompanying stories, are each a delightful surprise.

Berk is known in the music world as the “musical Truffle hound.” Truffles are rare. They depend on a certain climate, soil, and trees for their growth. Those who need to find these rare, delectable delights are truffle hunters. Celia is a truffle hunter. She is a gem at finding gems. Irving Berlin’s Manhattan Madness is a fantastic song about New York City. “Subways below and trains above, racing, packed with humanity. Manhattan, Manhattan/ You’ve got me at last/ I’m like a fly upon a steeple/ Watching seven million people/ Do a rhythm/ That draws me with ‘em…”

Celia, Varga, and the band are also taking well-known compositions like Up on the Roof and reinterpreting them, slowing down the pace of an already slow song gives it even more strength. The beauty of a day ending, and you far away from it all, all the noise, the rat race. In this rendition, I felt the depth of the song and the need for that space away from it all to simply be. 54 Below became that quiet paradise, swimming in the warmth of a day away from it all, breathing it all in, the sounds, the smells, and all the songs as smooth as butter.

Berk spoke of her rise in the music world. She never thought she would end up performing in iconic spots like 54 Below. She loved music, had a teacher, and believed she would simply sing for herself, friends, and family. Still, ten years ago, one serendipitous moment after another came her way – one believer in her talent led to another, and another –. She found herself living her dream, so, as Tim Allen’s character says in Galaxy Quest, “Never give up. Never surrender.” Berk did not and she is now a gift for all of us.

It was a majestic evening encompassing the tapestry of music, a discovery of the not-so-well-known, and, in some cases, I would say for me anyway, the complete unknown.

Celia Berk: For The Record – Starring Celia Berk, Music Director/ Piano Bálint Varga, Bass Trevor Robertson and Percussion Anthony Di Bartolo

54 Below 254 West 54th Street, NYC 10019

CALENDAR  FOR ALL SHOWS  HERE