Barbra Streisand - Love is the Answer (Deluxe Edition)
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Free Music Notes for Love is the Answer (Deluxe Edition)
Free Music Review: BRAVO! A quiet Jazz valentine to love by Streisand
Hit: 5 Stars
Barbra sounds right where she belongs on this exquisite jazz oriented piece of music. Her phrasing has never been better.Sometimes she evokes shades of the great late Shirly Horn(On here's to life). CD two is a sonic mood piece that is easy,confident and consoling.
Streisand sounds great on disc one esconced in pillowed understated orchestra.
The arrangements on disc 2 finds the songstress in a paired down element-and has a personal and mature quality that touches colors in your mind and heart.
Some of the upper register is lesser than early Streisnd,but her mature intimacy wins over in the end.The whispered richness and perfect pitch resonate and inspire. The jazz guitar riffs are bosa nova in nature,and play against her breathy vocals pefectly."Smoke gets in your eyes" reveals a less self concious singer,as w glimpse into her deeper complex self.Sweet!
I am quite happy she paired with jazz diva Diana Krall to create a most engaging array of classic songs. This deluxe edition draws from the great american song-writers. This singer always gets it right with the great writers of popular song. "Smoke gets in your eyes" is another dramatically read song.
I remember why I first loved Barbra's instrument,and glad she is doing such tasteful mature outings such as this one! The style here is not as "hit you over the head" as hr first recordings,but the voice has found another dimension in it's maturation.
Free Music Review: Outstanding - does anybody else hear Tony Bennett ?
Hit: 5 Stars
This album certainly surprised me, and apparently a lot of others. It is a great success due to Diana Krall's production and piano, Johnny Mandel's string arrangements, and Barbra's still-beautiful singing.
Barbra sings several tunes associated with Tony Bennett here, and many of Tony's great albums since his comeback 23 years ago have been arranged by Johnny Mandel, with a jazz trio such as this, so the similarities and influence seem obvious.
Make Someone Happy, Some Other Time, and You Must Believe In Spring were centerpieces to Tony Bennett's landmark albums with Bill Evans in 1975-76, and are highlights here (Barbra gets her album title from the lyrics of Make Someone Happy). Where Do You Start, from Tony's album "The Art Of Romance" in 2004, is an incredible song by Alan and Marilyn Bergman with Johnny Mandel. The Gentle Rain and A Time For Love are Bennett essentials from the late 60's.
Of course, there are songs associated with Frank Sinatra (In The Wee Small Hours, Here's That Rainy Day); and there's also a nice change of pace to bossa-nova with Ivan Lins' Love Dance which originated in the 70's.
The deluxe edition's bonus disc, with the entire album using only the jazz quartet backing Barbra, is an inspired and enjoyable idea. This album may be one of her best ever. Let's hope there's still a large audience for this kind of great music now and in the future.
Free Music Review: The Woman's Still Got It
Hit: 5 Stars
The idea/conceit behind the deluxe edition is terrific. Same songs, different backing. Though I wish the vocals differed as well, ultimately it does not much matter. Ms. Streisand's voice and interpretations are as good, even better, than they've ever been. Perhaps it is because I myself am 'older' (45) but the depth and experience that add to the beauty of her voice on this album only add to the greatness. And unlike some of her other albums that can be, well, a little cheesy (she loves that old fashioned sound), having Diana Krall involved obviously tempered some of her enjoyably more sentimental leanings. This is as adult, and mature, and beautiful as anything she has recorded. For me, her vocals on 'Smoke Gets In Your Eyes' sum it up - the wonder and pain of the song, which co-mingle to make it one of the great devastating torch songs of all time, are in stunning evidence. She lets her voice crack in pain towards the end in ways I have never heard on one of her recordings. Heartbreaking and inspiring both. I've listened to both versions many times now and I tend to like whichever one is on. Disc 2, as many have noted, is certainly a thrill. I wish I had been able to catch her perform some of these in NYC, with just a few musicians, when the album was released. But the lush orchestrations on Disc 1 are pretty wonderful as well. As I said, she's still got it, and in most ways better than she's ever had before.Free Music Review: "The One And Only Barbra Streisand"
Hit: 5 Stars
"Love is the Answer" is Barbra Streisand's first studio album for Columbia since 2005's "Guilty Pleasures". Diana Krall met Barbra backstage at one of Barbra's concerts a few years ago and came up with the idea of producing an album of jazz standards recorded by Miss Streisand. The result is an exceptional album showcasing one of the greatest singing voices of all-time. The CD is a Deluxe Edition in that you get two CD's: the first features all 13 studio tracks with orchestral arrangements by Johnny Mandel and William Ross; the second CD features only Barbra's voice and a quartet in which Barbra's voice sounds impeccable. The highlights from the album are the opening number called "Here's To Life", "Make Someone Happy", "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes", and my favorite "You Must Believe In Spring". To help promote the album Barbra sang at the Village Vanguard on September 26th, 2009. This was her first performance there in over 48 years. She had first played there as an opening act for Miles Davis. The CD is sure to be another platinum hit for Miss Streisand and I see another Grammy being garnered for her. One interesting fact about Streisand is that she is the only woman in the RIAA Top 10 List of Best selling Artists of All Time. "Love Is The Answer" debut at #1 on the Billboard Pop Charts selling over 100,000 copies in its first week of release.Free Music Review: God! She's soooo gooood!
Hit: 5 Stars
Barbra has had no peer in the forty-five years she's been on the scene. And this anticipation of her new album, at age sixty-seven, is perhaps greater than for any of her more recent albums...a whole new direction, it was hoped, working with the wonderful and enormously talented Diana Krall. Therefore I was surprised to see that the deluxe edition of this album includes Barbra backed by a full orchestra too, almost as if she didn't trust herself or her fans to take a new road. But it's a minor observation. Just to hear Barbra reign it in a bit, to acknowledge that, as gorgeous as her voice still is, it doesn't quite do what it did for so long. With these wonderful songs, she proves it's not necessary to knock each song out of the park as she has done on other albums. There's a much more subtle approach to these, most of them standards from the Great American Songbook. If you want a special treat, go into Barbra's website and watch her perform five of the numbers at the small club in New York, much as she did years ago when first starting out. I'd say it's the intimacy we've missed and it's that intimacy which Barbra provides this time around. Here's to hours spent listening to this wonderful addition to Barbra's discography. There is just no one like her and there probably never will be.