01/07/11

Lady Gaga Sings Jazz at Oak Room in NYC

Pop singer sits in with jazz singer Brian Newman for two standards

By Lee Mergner

Lady Gaga, who has been known to drop in as a listener at the Village Vanguard on occasion, sang a little jazz on Wednesday, January 5, at the Oak Room, where her friend Brian Newman was performing. Newman is a jazz singer and trumpet player who performs regularly at the Oak Room in the Plaza Hotel. On Wednesday night, Gaga got up and sang “Orange Colored Sky” by Milton DeLugg and Willie Stein and “Someone to Watch Over Me” by George and Ira Gershwin. Nat King Cole performed the best known version of the former, while the latter, originally from the musical Oh, Kay! has been a staple of jazz vocalists’ repertoire, with Ella Fitzgerald’s rendition on her Gershwin songbook album looming large in jazz history. Gaga performed that standard on the Today Show in July 2010.

You can catch this short (and very dark) video on YouTube of Ms. Gaga getting jazzy with it.

Perhaps the biggest lesson learned from watching the video? Apparently, even pop stars get talked over when performing jazz in a club.