Dave Frishberg and Jessica Molaskey in the oak room - review

Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesDave Colmenares and Jessica Molaskey oak room.

Some might call the bust inner voice which bothering do us the right thing a consciousness, others a guardian angel. The great jazz in the language of Dave Frishberg, author-composer, who plays a rare commitment to the room of the Algonquin Hotel with singer Jessica Molaskey oak is the singular sense of self invoked in "Listen here," his final number in the show.

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Accompanied on the piano and singing dry, avuncular voice of a specialized teacher pass his wisdom to a turbulent class, Mr. Frishberg last week he delivered as casual writing. "You can run, you can hide, oh, but a some time, defeat, we finish we face this small voice inside," said song.

That depth of insight in extremely polite phrases, this is what offer the best songs of Mr. Frishberg. Another is "The heart desire," Ms. Molaskey performed. Sung on a child, the song, with a nostalgic melody of chromatic by Alan Broadbent, urging the young to pursue "your special dream" but warned against the risks: "If you are looking for the desire of your heart, your heart can break."

The show, "Do you Miss New York?," includes many of the standards of Mr. Frishberg, among them "My attorney Bernie," sung with mischievous glee by Ms. Molaskey, which involves the narrator as his sleazy lawyer in the legal Commission of skullduggery. The last update of the sly "I'm Hip" (music by Bob Dorough), the put-down ultimate of bombers dropped around the world, the name of Jamie Cullum: a dubious hip meaning.

Its of Mr. Frishberg, with its difficult agreements and staccato sentences, was also tangy and insisted on the fact that his personality. Lest we forget, his game reminds us that it is jazz songs in the tradition of gogo early; their lyrical and musical diction has a strained nerve energy. Ms. Molaskey is also sympathetic interpreter of his work as Blossom Dearie, which he used to perform.

Two recent songs, "Will Die?" and "Excuse Me for living," come from "The New York," a "semi-musical" (as Mr. Frishberg described) of the Algonquin round table. They emphasize the self-destructive behavior of Dorothy Parker, which was still threatening suicide. "Excuse me for life" is the scathing retort of Parker of voyeurs into his private life.

In the field of pop music and jazz, the level of craftsmanship in the songs of Mr. Frishberg is amounted to only by that of Stephen Sondheim. Each sentence is engraved, each word sealed in place to allow this "small voice that whispers crystal clear" better to have its say.

"You Miss New York do?". continues through April 2 in Algonquin, Manhattan hotel oak room, 59 West 44th Street; (212) 419-9331, algonquinhotel.com.