Susan Mack celebrates the season in song with a sold-out show.
Last night, Susan Mack returned to Birdland, her usual musical playground, with her autumnal show, appropriately titled ‘TIS AUTUMN, and, as usual, there was not an empty seat in the club. Indeed, at the merch station, one could spot improvised dining by way of dinner plates atop linens draped over the glass case, and barstools to accommodate the guests. It is always a pleasure to see an artist sell out a room, and clubs willing to do all they can to see to it that their clientele get to enjoy their artists. And, given the response to ‘Tis Autumn, enjoy this artist, they did.
By: Stephen Mosher | Oct. 14, 2025
Ms. Mack has built up a solid reputation as a jazz singer, and part of that reputation is the fact that she has consistently played to sold-out houses at the venerated club that hosts her shows. For this writer who was seeing Mack for the first time, the proof was in the performance, and it has to be said: the reputation has been earned. It is a pleasure to listen to Susan Mack sing. In fact, sometimes it was a surprise. Taking in an artist for the first time is like being on a first date, and as the layers unfurl, as the stranger before you drops veil after veil, as you come to see the different facets of their personality (of their artistry), there should be nods of endorsement, there should be smiles of enjoyment, and there should be raised eyebrows of wonderment.
Such was this writer’s experience of Susan Mack. At first blush, the whiskey tones of the lady’s voice come across as sultry and expressive, a genuinely pretty voice to listen to, with luscious low notes and tons of texture, but as opening number “Thumbs Up” progresses, there is the surprise of some range, and then the surprise of power, as you realize this is not a jazz singer who is going to utilize Tedd Firth’s treatments to silkily slip through a set of smoky vocals – this is a singer who has come to run the gamut. And that is exactly what Mack did last night. Although the moniker “jazz singer” has been applied to her style, and although there are jazz treatments and scat singing, not every performance last night was created for a jazz set. Jazz was on the menu, but Susan Mack knows her way around a pop song, too. Mr. Firth (who, let’s face it, can do anything) gives Ms. Mack a clean, simple, straightforward arrangement for “Colors of the Wind,” which the lady executed as though it were 1995 and she was in the recording booth laying down tracks for an album. Susan Mack put her versatility on display, both versatility in song styles, and vocal variety, and it was noticeable.
Observe the ease with which Mack jockeys back and forth between the more modern aesthetic of Stevie Wonder (represented by two different numbers) and the more vintage sounds of Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and Cab Calloway, as showcased in an evening highlight, a mashup of “Frim Fram Sauce” and “Everybody Eats When They Come To My House.” The Wonder compositions offer Mack an opportunity for some contemporary sounds full of fluidity, and the vintage cuts resonate with a Vaudevillian vibe, loaded with crisp phrasing of voluble stanzas, to say nothing of the playful nature of the food-oriented medley, deftly treated by Tedd. It is a treat to see a singer not content to be locked into a certain style, a particular lane, especially when they have the skill to traverse different musical lanes with ease.