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My Standards |
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1. |
And the Angels Sing (Z. Elman, J. Mercer) Warner Bros Music |
(3:52) |
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2. |
Something to Live For (B. Strayhorn) EMI Mills Music, Inc., Estate Of Mercer K Ellington |
(3:41) |
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3. |
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
(M. Sherwin, |
(5:50) |
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4. |
Love Dance (I. Lins & V. Martins, P.
Williams) Kidada Music, Inc., State Of The Arts Music |
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5. |
Doodlin' (H. Silver, J.Hendricks) Silhouette Music | (3:08) |
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6. |
Barangrill (Joni Mitchell) Crazy Crow Music | (3:41) |
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7. |
Shipbuilding (C. Langer, E. Costello) Plangent Visions Music Inc, Warner Bros Music |
(3:59) |
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8. |
Where Do You Start? (J. Mandell, A. Bergman & M.
Bergman) Threesome Music, Marissa Music Co. |
(3:13) |
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9. |
Since You Stayed Here (P. Larson, J. Rubins) Pierrepont Music Co. |
(2:56) |
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10. |
When (S)he Loved me (R. Newman) Walt Disney Music | (3:29) |
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11. |
Theme from “Valley of the Dolls”
(A. Previn, D. Previn) Warner Bros Music |
(4:03) |
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12. |
Happiness Is Hard to Sell (K. Oberlin) | (4:31) |
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13. |
You Are Too Beautiful (R. Rodgers, L. Hart) Warner Bros Music, Williamson Music Co But Beautiful (J. Burke, J. Van Heusen) Bourne Co-Burke & Van Heusen Division, Dorsey Brothers Music |
(7:51) |
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14. |
How Deep Is the Ocean (I. Berlin) Irving Berlin Music Company |
(5:29) |
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15. |
Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep
(I. Berlin) Irving Berlin Music Company |
(1:24) |
Karen Oberlin, arrangements & vocals
Arturo O’Farrill, arrangements & piano (1, 3-13)
Fred Hersch, arrangements & piano (2, 14)
Jay Leonhart, bass (1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12)
Victor Jones, drums (1, 4, 5, 7, 11, 12)
Dan Carillo, guitar (1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12)
Peter Brainin, sax (4, 5, 7)
Roland Guerrero, percussion (4, 6)
It was a case - make that two cases - of brilliant thinking but bad timing. When the producers of the off-Broadway hit "Our Sinatra" needed another singer for the female spot in the production, I immediately thought of Karen Oberlin. Although Sinatra had sung a lot of showtunes in his time, he was hardly a Broadway-style singer, and to make his songbook work for contemporary Broadway audiences they needed someone with a clear understanding of both idioms. It was the same deal when veteran jazz entrepreneur Todd Barkan informed me that he was mounting a concert version of "Renaissance Man," a hitherto un-produced musical comedy with a score by Duke Ellington and lyrics by Herb Martin. As before, singers equally versed in both halves of that equation, showmusic and Ellingtonia, would not be easy to find. In both cases, he said, patting himself on the back, I thought of Karen Oberlin, but in each instance, my input was completely unnecessary since the producers of both ventures had arrived at the same conclusion at least 16 bars before me.
From those two examples, one might arrive at the same description that the producer of this CD used when presenting the project to me: eclectic. Now eclecticism is indeed the major buzzword these days in the related fields of both jazz and cabaret singing, and in general I'm all for it. But two things about that concept strike me as worth mentioning, first that eclecticism is not or should not be an end in itself, as it often seems to be these days, which leads to, as Joni Mitchell puts it here, "the craze that comes from too much choice." Secondly that, bearing that in mind, it may not be the best way of describing what Karen Oberlin does. I'm not sure that the act of choosing songs from a wide range of sources, on the surface of it, makes one an eclectic. The term I would choose to characterize Oberlin is consistent, since while she does cast a wide net and pick tunes from the '30s to the '90s, from Irving Berlin to Elvis Costello, but commendably, there's never any attempt to lose herself in any of those idioms - no matter what the source is, she's always K.O. (I hope the reader will indulge me in this use of prizefight terminology but somehow it seems appropriate to refer to her by those initials.)
As suggested, the concept of eclecticism, along with the use of a jazz rhythm section for accompaniment, are merely means to a greater end - and that end is the central motivation for all theatrically-based singers, to tell a story, to communicate a point, to get a message across. With KO, however, it's more specific than that - you'll notice that for all the different kinds of water in which she dives for pearls, most of the texts herein are highly evocative descriptions of a specific locale. If the medium is the message, then the setting is the story: "Since You Stayed Here" describes a room, "A Nightingale Sang" depicts a city and an era, "And The Angels Sing" reads like a vivid recollection of a dream. Some of these descriptions are solidly literal, e.g. "Barangrill," which paints a picture of exactly that (although with spaces between the words) while "Where Do You Start?" takes as its starting point the idea of a couple breaking up (been there, done that) and dividing up their tchochkes (ask KO's half-Jewish step kids to tell you what that means) and from there spins an elaborate reflection on the nature of love and relationships. (Incidentally, I pleaded with KO not to put "Since You Stayed Here" and "When (S)he Loved Me" back to back as the lead-in from one to the other is just too emotionally overwhelming - of course, that was all the inducement she needed to keep them together.)
By contrast, Dory Previn's text to "Theme from...." is such a jumbled collage of ideas, which so well succeeds, as the authors intended, in conveying confusion, that it doesn't even stand still long enough to rest on a phrase that might give it a title. Both this and "Shipbuilding," another surreal, detached set of metaphors that somehow becomes crystal clear when KO sings it.
KO seems equally comfortable going from one extreme to the other: "Count Your Blessings," which she delivers in a haunting, a capella treatment is nothing if not direct and concrete. "How Deep Is The Ocean," by the same Irving Berlin, uses the biggest of all concepts, the depth of the ocean, the height of the sky, to express the most intimate of ideas, which KO makes even more personal in the setting of a one-to-one duo with sensitive pianist Fred Hersch.
I'm generally a fancier of theme albums and shows - that's one reason why I enjoyed KO's solo cabaret, "I’ll be Hard to Handle" so much (and saw it as often as I could); there the theme was about women who refused to be romantically submissive, as most women are in traditional songs. After listening to this CD for a while the common thread of all these songs, that they each tell a specific story through evocative description, eventually became clear to me. Ultimately, it may be the sweet sound of KO's voice that matters most of all, and leaves her music ringing in our hearts.
Will Friedwald is author of "Jazz Singing" and "Sinatra! The Song Is You", and co-author with Tony Bennett of "The Good Life".
