Oh Mariah Carey, you tease. When this grainy visual of Madame Butterfly crooning and scatting her way through "Summertime" and "Lullaby of Birdland" at NYC's Belman's Bar came across the desks here at SBHQ we all pretty much harmonized that this was a touchdown (and not whatever that was during her performance at the NFL kick-off last week) and that this is what we know Mariah is capable of doing -- and not what we've been conditioned to these last couple of years. After the lackluster "Triumphant" negated Mariah to "hook girl" status, hearing her drape herself vocally over a song like this conjured up vintage visions of "Vanishing" and "The Wind" dancing in my head, making me salivate yet again over the idea of Mariah forging a much-needed sound overhaul.
Forgive me, for I come from the AARP League of Lambs who should probably forget about the good ol' 90s and embrace the hip-hop loving from Mimi's oven, but moments like this continue to make me realize that Mariah is capable of graduating from the mediocre music hole that she's in at current. Still, I've got to be realistic and not blame Mariah wholly for doing music that undermines her talents seen here. My finger wag should be directed to the big bad recording industry who sees dollar signs and (sadly) loves to huff and puff the house of artistic experimentation down every time. Though this jazzercise is an impromptu performance that will probably not lead to Mariah tsking-her-tasket Ella Fitzgerald style any time soon, it does shoot down criticisms that her voice -- that voice that always fit so comfortably in any genre that it lounged in -- isn't a lost commodity, but is still gloriously there.
