POP MUSIC REVIEW : Baby Jane Dexter Bigger Than Life in Song--and Attitude

If Baby Jane Dexter’s voice had its way, it would be belting out show tunes on Broadway, orating at a civil rights rally, or entertaining a stadium full of Heart or Pat Benatar fans. At the tiny Cinegrill on Tuesday, the opening of a five-night stand, it was all Dexter could do to keep her voice from busting out of the room in search of a larger venue with a brighter spotlight. We’re talking big and emotive .

Dexter, a figure on the New York cabaret scene of the 1970s who’s staging a comeback of sorts after a decade off from performing, makes an apt companion for that voice. All big hair and even bigger attitude, she entertained the appreciative audience with a nimble stream of consciousness about everything from bowling to the blues.

Whenever she got around to singing, it was worth the wait. Dexter took a panoply of material, from Abbey Lincoln’s “I Got Thunder” (the apropos title of Dexter’s recent debut album) to Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on You,” and, accompanied by pianist Ross Patterson, managed to make it all simultaneously larger than life and finely nuanced.

It was one of her few original numbers, however, that provided the most gripping interlude. “Fifteen Ugly Minutes,” the tale of a rape and its vengeful aftermath, recalled Tori Amos’ haunting “Me and a Gun” in its starkness and distinctly female perspective.