Lynn DiMenna, looking polished yet comfortable in a red silk blouse, black slacks and pumps, takes the stage at the Summit, a Manhattan supper club, and croons from her repertoire of great American standards. With her favorite trio behind her — piano, stand-up bass and drums — as well as floor-to-ceiling wallpaper depicting scenes from Palm Springs, Lynn sings of love and hope and happiness. “You make me feel so young,” she celebrates in song, and she looks the part. Her beautiful skin, careful makeup and cheery disposition brighten the dark room on a cold night.
Two weeks later Meredith DiMenna, Lynn’s daughter, sidles up to her band mates, Bridgeport rappers Nervous System, at a Manhattan nightclub called Crash Mansion. She’s dressed all in black, from her eye makeup down to her sneaker-boots with three-inch-tall stiletto heels. Meredith thumps out the bass line and sings as her hip-hop group entertains an audience of some 400 people packed together for a tsunami relief concert. Although mother and daughter perform within a subway ride of each other, they may as well be worlds apart. “I can’t understand their lyrics,” Lynn, fifty-eight years old, confides from the bright and colorful den in her Darien home.
To read this article in its entirety, please purchase this month’s issue of NEW CANAAN • DARIEN magazine. If you’d like a listing of local newsstands where NEW CANAAN • DARIEN magazine is sold, please click here. To subscribe click here