Customer Reviews

In Person At The Plaza

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

I debated on buying this CD for several months, until I had the pleasure of seeing Miss Kitt perform at Blues Alley in Georgetown last year. Her live performance (at age 69) in the cozy nightclub was electrifying, and I figured it would be impossible for any recording to capture the essence of such a live performance. But, I was pleasantly surprised when I put this CD in my player. Suddenly, I was back in that nightclub, transfixed on her voice, spunk, and attitude. If you love Eartha, this CD is not to be missed.

This is the best of Eartha Kitt without a doubt. With her amazing talent, she brings the listener what I think is her best work. The songs range from "C'mon a My House," a very fast, fun and lively song to "Old Fashion Girl," a slow and hilarious song. Yet most of the songs on this CD are fast and fun! If you are looking for solower songs I think you should bye "Back in Business." One starts singing her songs everywhere one goes. She is a phenomenal artest and very talented in the way she uses her voice. Kitt has been nominated 3 times for a Tony Award and 2 times for a Emmy and Grammy. You are missing out if you do not have this CD. I hope you will enjoy and share it with your family and friends.

Eartha Kitt was one of the premier jazz cabaret singers of the 20th century. Despite this recording containing little to no information on the recording and musicians at hand, the disc still deserves five stars due to superb sound quality and a great price. Kitt is in peak form on this live set with plenty of sexy phraseology, wit, and charm. Nina Simone had the same kind of flare with audiences as Kitt.

The sound quality on this album is outstanding. Recorded live in 1965 at The Plaza, the musical director on this recording is David Saxon. I wish I knew who the sidemen were on these tracks, as they interact well with her on these sets. With vocals as rich and sultry as this, I find myself revisiting "Eartha Kitt in Person at the Plaza" regularly. So sample some of the tracks, read some of these reviews, and see how she suits you. I doubt Eartha will disappoint you.

"Live at the Plaza" is in my view, the best Eartha Kitt CD which is currently "widely" available. Some of the more difficult recordings to come by, such as "Live In London", compare favorably but any Eartha Kitt fan should have "Live at the Plaza". There are few performers with the charisma and stage presence of Ms. Kitt, and this album captures the very essence of her fabulous live performances. The recording quality is excellent, and the song variety is wonderful. "Champagne Taste", "I Wanna Be Evil", "How Could You Believe Me", "Warray, Warray", and "Sell Me" are all WELL worth the purchase price of this album. If you are a fan of Eartha Kitt, or if you are a fan of her genre, then you will not want to miss the opportunity to purchase this album. Though "Live at the Plaza" has been widely available for several years, Ms. Kitt's album's notoriously go out of print and become collector's items. Jump on this while you have the opportunity!!!

the only eartha kitt cd worth buying at this time, miss kit displays the talents of an army of women on this recording, she sings acts and lives her music. very funny at times in several languages including japanese and yiddish.

The only way to appreciate Eartha is to experience her pouncing and purring in her cabaret act. This well-recorded date from 1965 is perhaps her most representative, all-around satisfying performance. It captures her persona as a dangerous Circe who requires men with deep pockets, disposing of them like tissue paper after they've broken the bank on her, yet confessing that she really prefers "dirt" to "diamonds and gold" (the "inside" part of the whole joke). As Eartha liked to say following the Madonna hit song, the original "material girl" was a character invented by Eartha herself. "At the Plaza" also reveals what a talented multilingual actress the (loudly) self-proclaimed "evil woman" was ("Come-on-a-My House" is hysterical in Japanese; "Rumania" is a Yiddish tour-de-force).

If you want to complete the picture, simply pick up two additional tunes and read one of her three autobiographies. The tunes are "Monotonous," a 1952 put-on by an independent spirit who is "bored" by what the rest of us yearn for, and "Santa Baby," her lone mega-hit, made possible by the success of "Monotonous"' the year before.

Her life story is remarkably similar to Billie Holiday's, Edith Piaf's, and especially Nina Simone's. A Southern poor girl, of mixed black and white heritage, living and working on a former cotton plantation, shipped to New York, where she was exploited and slept in subways. But then that exceptional independent spirit and will--unlike the addictive personalities of Holiday and Piaf and superseding even Simone's determination--carried her to international stardom. It's unlikely the voice alone is going to produce new fans of Eartha (who, like the preceding vocalists, had cross-generational appeal to the gay community and repaid in kind with numerous benefits for AIDs-related causes). But making the acquaintance of the whole phenomenon that was Eartha is worth the effort.

After her much-publicized denunciation of the Viet Nam war while an invited guest at the White House in 1968, she became, in effect, exiled from America until ten years later, when President Jimmy Carter invited her back as a sign that all was forgiven. To say that she made the most of the homecoming would be an understatement.

This is a wonderful Eartha Kitt CD with some of her best songs. If there is one CD of Ms. Kitts that you should get, this would be the one.

I think it is her best CD. The music is loud and brassy. Eartha ia at her gold digger best.