Hollywood touches everything in the LA area, including jam sessions. In any other city, jam sessions, in particular for singers, are straight to the point – sing your song, who’s next?

But here in Tinsel Town, there is a touch of cabaret infused in many jams, mainly because many of the singers are out of work actors. That means each song is preceded by some monologue, followed with an over-the-top performance.

In the wonderful production, “Ebony Cabaret” (I’ll call it EC for short), the spirit of the LA jam is captured in live, living color with a naughty dash of sexy!

I don’t think the producer, Desiree Parkman, was going for that vibe, but after covering numerous jam sessions for this blog, EC feels more like a jam, then a linear, story based musical – and that’s just fine with me.

Perhaps the one thing that stands out most is the high-quality level of talent.

Let’s start with the host of the show, Lacy Darryl Phillips. His performance, alone, is more than worth the price of admission, – $15 at the red-velvety M Bar in Hollywood. It is really refreshing to see and hear Broadway level talent up close and personal here on the left coast. People are born for things, whether it’s practicing medicine, architecture, engineering, etc. This man was born for the stage. Serving as the MC for the show, Phillips’ charm and talent combined to keep the show flowing with an easy pace. Topping it all off was his profoundly cool and cunning performance of the tune, “Viper”. That alone will make the cover charge, plus food minimum (a policy that’s an entertainment world plague) bearable.

Other treats included an elegant performance by Pamela Threats. Don’t let her runway-model figure fool you. Threat’s voice has the richness and depth of a Cassandra Wilson or Lala Hathaway combined with the mature sassyness of a Debra Cox or Kelly Rowland. Put that name in your mental Rolodex. You’re going to be hearing more about her in years to come.

Also, the mysterious Annabel Lee is worth noting. Opening up the show, it was clear from her first note EC is something special. Powerful and haunting in a Grace Jones sort of way, Lee had the audience on lockdown from start to finish. Her rollicking, rhumba version of Cole Porter’s 1930 smash, ‘Love For Sale’, was a nice way to get the crowd right and ready.

The show also included a poetry routine by journey woman, ShyButFly. Although her voice is a bit high, borderline childlike, her words were deep and profound. She performed two poems, but the one that stood out was the sensual, ‘I Just Want To Make Love To You”. Spoken word poetry can be inaccessible to a lot of people. But Fly brought you in, set up the message and delivered. Nice work, here.

Add to all of this, spectacular dancing and a burlesque routine by Ashleeta Beauchamp that was one of the sexiest performances you’ll ever see. Warning to men with female dates – try your best not to get yourselves in trouble during Beauchamp’s performance. It won’t be easy.

Kudos to the band, as well. Led by the always wonderful work of Aaron Provisor on piano, the trio (bass, drum) kept the music nice and tasty. Of note, the bassist, Aneesa, has a touch that’s going to take her places. Choice chops!

But even with all of this goodness, there are some things that can improve – mainly, punctuality. EC advertises that doors open at 7p, showtime at 8p. On this night, February 21st, 2013, the show didn’t start until 8:40! That’s unacceptable. Starting 10, or at the most, 15 minutes after the advertised time is bearable. Anything more is downright sloppy. After working 25 years in TV, film and stage one thing I know for sure is that that kind of tardiness will get you run right out of town – for good. Hopefully, that’ll get cleaned up for the next performance.

Also, in that time, with members of the audience already seated, cast members were practicing ON STAGE – LOUDLY. That’s a no-no. I want to be surprised by the music I paid to hear – not sitting there thinking ‘Oh, this is the song from rehearsal.’ It may be a venue issue (no Green room to rehearse or relax in). If so, I’d suggest rehearsing quietly.

Finally, the show screams for a wireless microphone. Phillips did an admirable job keeping the acts flowing, but there’s only so much you can do when you have to deal with dragging a clunky mic and mic stand on and off the stage between acts. The wireless is worth the investment.

But don’t let these minor issues deter you from seeing this show. It is fine entertainment that will hold your attention from start to finish. With a little polish, EC would be a delightful off Broadway treat. Catch it here in Hollywoodland – while you can.

Industry bosses hailed a return to growth, fuelled by rising digital revenues as music fans sign up to subscription streaming services such as Spotify, which offer instant access to millions of songs.

“The industry is on the road to recovery,” claimed Frances Moore, chief executive of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which reported that global recorded music revenues rose by 0.3 per cent in 2012.

The traditional music powerhouses of the UK, US and Germany are still struggling to make the transition to digital. The new growth is being driven by the spread of smart phones and tablets offering legal digital music services in Brazil, India, Mexico and Sweden.

Global hitmakers will increasingly come from South American and Asia. The biggest hits of 2012 included “Gangnam Style” by the South Korean rapper Psy, which attracted 1.2 billion YouTube views and “Ai Se Eu Te Pego” by Brazilian singer Michel Teló. The Portugese-language song sold 7 million downloads after its video went viral and football players adapted the dance for goal celebrations.

The IFPI’s Digital Music Report found that digital revenues increased by 9 per cent to $5.6 billion in 2012 and now account for around 34 per cent of global industry revenues. Legal digital services now operate in 100 markets, helping to drive people away from unlicensed file-sharing services.

The number of people paying to use subscription services has leapt 44 per cent in 2012 to 20 million.  Subscription revenues are expected to account for more than 10 per cent of digital revenues for the first time in 2012. The Spotify service now has 5 million paid subscribers, up from 3 million in 2011. In its native Sweden an estimated one-third of the entire population uses the service.

The arrival of Cloud-based music services from Apple, Amazon and Microsoft, allowing people to access their entire music collections from a variety of different devices has helped improve the user experience for licensed services, the report found.

Google is poised to make a major intervention in the market with the launch of its own music streaming service which will include millions of songs from major recording artists. A music streaming service would place Google, which owns video-sharing site YouTube, in direct competition with Spotify.

Google already distributes music via Google Play, where users can purchase songs and albums in a similar way to Apple’s iTunes.

But the IFPI called on Google, which is in talks with major labels over accessing their catalogues for the new service, to do more to prevent copyright infringing music files from leading its music search engine results.

Ms Moore said: “This growth is still fragile. Google needs to priorities legal sites in its searches. Far from copyright ‘smothering innovation’, music, based on copyright, is driving the digital economy. Music is driving social network sites. The highest number of searches on Facebook and Twitter are for music artists.”

The report said that the recording industry annually invested 26 per cent of its trade revenues ($4.5 billion) in developing and marketing new talent. British stars helped fuel the return to growth with Adele’s 21 the biggest selling global album of 2012, selling 8.3 million copies. One Direction sold nearly 9 million copies of their two albums.

However the report found that around one-third of internet users globally (32%) are still regularly using unlicensed file-sharing sites.

Ms Moore said the first growth for 15 years was “a hard-won success for an industry that has innovated, battled and transformed itself over a decade. The music industry has adapted to the internet world and learned how to meet the needs of consumers.”