Susannah de Wrixon

Sometimes you need to go back to basics to rediscover what it is you love about music. To Cafe Cabaret, for example, a small, intimate show featuring Susannah de Wrixon on vocals backed by her deliciously understated trio: Clan Boylan (piano), Andy McDonald (bass) and Tom Dunne (drums).

The premise for the evening is "songs by mostly jazz vocalists and a tribute to women who influenced me", claims de Wrixon. And she stays true to that promise (almost), presenting potted biographies of artists such as Liza Minelli, Peggy Lee, Agnes Bernelle, and Ella Fitzgerald, the subject of de Wrixon's show at the same venue four years ago. Strangely enough, when de Wrixon veers from her stated path to include songs by Jacques Brel and Tom Waits, she delivers the highlights of the night: Old Folks and I Hope I Don't Fall In Love With You, respectively.

In fact, de Wrixon's immaculately sensitive reading of Old Folks is bound to make tearful anyone fearful of losing, well, a beloved old folk. Even more moving, for those who have actually lost a mother, is her reading of Look Mama, No Hands, the song Dillie Keane wrote for Bernelle. Far less effective, however, are de Wrixon's reading of Peggy Lee's Is That All There Is? which she reduces from poignant to farcical, and her constant craving to keep the audience humoured, a hangover from her experience as part of The Nualas, perhaps. The show needs humour, of course, but not between each song.

De Wrixon's voice, though perfectly pitched and beautiful in tone, also lacks the kind of abrasiveness necessary for Liza Minelli songs and the clawing sexuality needed to represent the work of Eartha Kitt. That said, overall, the music, a glass of red wine and a light meal all make Cafe Cabaret one of the sheer delights of nightlife this summer in Dublin.

Every Thursday, July and August, 8.30 p.m.