DISCOVERIES: The Three Degrees

Every once in a while I have one of those pop culture moments: how in hell did I live without knowing about _____?? Well this evening, thanks to Ava, I'm having one of those moments and you can fill in the blank with THE THREE DEGREES. Eat your heart out Diana Ross...these gals are jaw-dropping!

DISCOVERIES: Matt Alber's "End of the World"

I know this video moves me so deeply because it echoes my own heartfelt dreams, but if I can remove myself from astonishment at the imagery, or the sense that Alber's lyrics speak as if from my own heart...well, I think this is quite simply a gorgeous song:

Song of the Moment: AT LAST

It's been inescapable--the last 36 hours we've been subject to endless TV and internet replay of the Obamas' first dance as First Couple, and that means the first sung lines of Beyoncé's cover of "At Last" is stuck in our collective pop culture brain like a skipped record. Beyoncé makes a fair attempt at recreating the iconic magic of Etta James (whom Beyoncé played recently in the movie Cadillac Records) but need I point out that Beyoncé is no Etta James?

Etta James' "At Last" (1961) is certainly well-known and rightly so; it's a gorgeous recording. Opening with a lovely sweep of strings and a pulsing piano driving the song forward, James' strong, ragged-around-the-edges vocal is the real pleasure.



The song is a great vocal showcase, dropping low and soaring high to deliver the expectant surprise of the lyric. I suppose that's what draws vocalists to "At Last" in the first place, but as I started to muse over other covers of the song, I was quickly reminded that all covers are not created equal!

One of my favorite recordings of "At Last" is the GLENN MILLER ORCHESTRA (1942) with RAY EBERLE performing the vocal. As you would expect from a Miller tune, this is smooth stuff with a strong horn section backing Eberle's rich Crosby-like croon. It makes you want to slow dance with a tall, handsome somebody you met during the War. Recommended.

LOU RAWLS named an entire album after the song (1989) and recorded "At Last" as a duet with the deeply fabulous DIANNE REEVES. The arrangement is, unfortunately, very 1980s with a synth-driven beat (is that a drum machine?!) I'd think the song would be a great fit for Rawls, but his vocal is pedestrian at best, while Reeves has some moments where she threatens to steal the number and perform it to best effect. Ultimately, it's not her showcase. A Missed Opportunity.

Oh, JIMMY SCOTT. Gorgeous. His "At Last" (1992) is, in my opinion, the best of this lot. It may be heresy to opine that Scott's vocal is better than Etta James', but I find it more moving. Scott's musical arrangement, however, isn't nearly as appealing. Scott sings with unusual vocal cadences that force your ear to hear most everything he sings anew, even if (as is typical) he is covering songs you have heard several hundred times before. He seems to feel his songs very deeply, so the sense of revelation in Scott's "At Last"--the joy of finding that unexpected love--is very palpable. While this arrangement relies heavily on a string orchestra, it doesn't have the charm of the instrumentation that charges Etta's version. Nonetheless, Jimmy Scott's cover is a worthy successor. Highly Recommended.

A former co-worker from my Time Inc. days, MARIA POSTELL recorded a swinging cover of "At Last" on her album "At This Moment" (1998). Postell delivers the lyrics with flair and displays a vibrant chemistry with the small jazz combo backing her. It's a solid version that keeps you paying attention to the lyric. Enjoyable.

As her career was taking off in 2000, CHRISTINA AGUILERA's ABC-TV special (now a DVD) included "At Last" as a sort of insider's look at backstage hijinks, performing the song for friends and crew

VIDEO: Christina Aguilera's "At Last"

Aguilera had grown up loving the song, and she's not bad--she's a little girl with a big voice she hasn't yet grown into, and she's definitely showing off. Surprisingly, it mostly works. It's an interesting outtake, and you can see shades of the dirrty tranny clown she was to become later, but basically she pulls it off. An Interesting Novelty.

While similar in orchestrated approach to Scott's version, JONI MITCHELL's cloying "At Last" (2000) is smothered by ghastly cinematic strings. This isn't surprising inasmuch as Mitchell has been given to fully orchestrated versions of her work in recent years. It's also not a surprising choice for Mitchell to record. In her own songwriting she has often paid tribute through lyric or musical reference to R&B tunes and jukebox hits from her youth. What is surprising is how awful this cover is: even with Mitchell in appealing voice, it's so forcibly "pretty" it's like pouring syrup into your eardrums and drowning as it drains into your sinuses. Saccharine.

In a bare-bones "At Last" (piano and very spare strings) CYNDI LAUPER (2003) seems to be deconstructing the song but it resolutely doesn't work. It's too bad, because Lauper--like so many of the folks in this post--has a strikingly powerful voice. This recording, however, adds up to nothing except some strikingly ugly notes held too long. It's also strange that Lauper sounds so unhappy while singing here; it's completely at odds with the lyric. Puzzling.

CELINE DION performed the song in her long-running Vegas show A New Day (2004). Badly. No diction, no emotion, no apparent understanding of the lyric; Dion seems to be performing it phonetically. This "At Last" opens with what sounds like a Kenny G electronic oboe over a karaoke bar orchestration. The usual grotesque melisma. Nothing to see here; move along. Worst of the lot.

Thank you, Lord, for those increasingly rare occasions when PHOEBE SNOW records: her live version (1991) is theatric camp but it must have been riveting for the lucky audience. Snow boldly uses "At Last" in a manner many of these other vocalists have just hinted at: she hijacks it as a showcase for her magnificent voice. There are not many voices as powerful as Snow's and here she squeals, shouts, wails, and wrestles the song into complete submission. It's an ecstatic delivery; triumphal and surprised and sexy. It culminates in a crazy bit of vocalizing that is pure Phoebe and concludes with one clarion note that must have brought them to their feet. Silly but Quite Wonderful.

ARETHA FRANKLIN (she of the Inaugural Bonnet!) recorded the song, but it was cut from her 1974 album "Let Me In Your Life". God knows why, because it's a great cover with all the wonder of Aretha's voice in her prime. An orchestrated slow-funk groove allows Aretha to swoop and sail soulfully around the proceedings. It's a classic and gorgeous "At Last"; ample evidence of why Aretha is regarded as highly as she is. Highly Recommended.

Songs I Adore:David Sylvian's "Nostalgia" (1984)

Voices heard in fields of green
Their joy their calm and luxury
Are lost within the wanderings of my mind

One of the most extraordinary songs from one the best-produced albums I know, David Sylvian's "Nostalgia" from his album Brilliant Trees (1984) hooked me the moment I heard it nearly 25 years ago. From the opening strains of a wordless (Hindi? Hebrew?) vocal/chant, "Nostalgia" is deeply steeped in the album's lush musical layers of East-meets-West influence and Sylvian's own metaphoric lyrics.

I'm cutting branches from the trees
Shaped by years of memories
To exorcise their ghosts from inside of me

There are long, gorgeous instrumental passages within "Nostalgia". Sylvian's collaborators suggest Eastern musical influences electronically here, while Kenny Wheeler's jazz-like flugelhorn drifts in and around the proceedings. Co-produced with Steve Nye (Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Bryan Ferry, Frank Zappa) Brilliant Trees was Sylvian's first solo foray after leaving his reasonably successful rock/punk band, JAPAN. "Nostalgia" remains my favorite track on Brilliant Trees, and it heralds the complex beauty that Sylvian has built in subsequent recordings.

The sound of waves in a pool of water
I'm drowning in my nostalgia

Iconography: KEELY SMITH

There are plenty of reasons that some of the greatest music arrangers and conductors (like Billy May & Nelson Riddle) chose to work with Keely Smith at Capitol Records in the late 1950s. Reasons being the lady could sing, the lady could swing, the lady could deliver a gorgeous song and make your heart soar with a voice to rival any of the leading female vocalists of the day. Keely's voice was bright and strong, with nearly perfect pitch and an occasional Virginia drawl. Keely is still best remembered for her marriage to Louis Prima and the duets that featured in their legendary stage shows ("That Old Black Magic," et al.) Yet it's her solo Capitol recordings, Politely! and Swingin' Pretty, that caught my ear in a friend's basement where we amused ourselves by pulling out her mother's favorite old LPs. I knew nothing about Keely then, and assumed she was relegated to the heap of singers past who'd stopped performing around the time I was born. Boy, was I ever wrong.

Keely did vanish for a couple of decades; she stopped recording & performing while she focused on raising her kids. In 1985 she recorded a comeback album, I'm In Love Again and bagged a Grammy nomination in the process. Hearing that album, I fell in love with Keely's voice all over again. In the early 90s I first saw her perform live at Rainbow & Stars, a supper club at the top of Rockefeller Center. She was marvelous; a consummate performer with a surprising shtick to her stage patter, alternating gorgeous singing with deadpan jokes about Sicilian lovers and pasta. A few years later, in a bit of true serendipity, I got to see Keely perform in Las Vegas at the Sands, assisted by her bandleader of the 1950s, Sam Butera. It was like being transported back in time 40 years--and one of the best live shows I've ever witnessed.

What makes my experience of Keely so much richer is that she's kept on recording and performing--well into her seventies. Shockingly, her clarion voice has mellowed very little and though her vibrato has widened just a bit, the near-perfect pitch and sweet high range are practically carbon copies of the sound on her Capitol recordings. Keely's voice is truly one of the rare miracles of showbiz (and a good deal of care, I'm sure; Keely swears she never smoked or drank.)

As recently as 2007, Keely was playing two shows a night at New York's swanky Cafe Carlyle. I caught that show with Wanda & Steve--almost 15 years after we'd see Keely with Sam Butera in Vegas. Her stage presence was much the same: surprisingly raunchy patter (from a grandmother!) between sets of sweet, soulful singing. It still surprises me how relatively unsung the glory of Keely's solo work has been--she is, without a doubt, one of the Greats.

Required Listening: Politely! (1958), Swingin' Pretty (1959), Keely Sings Sinatra (2001), Keely Swings Basie-Style (2002), Vegas '58 Today (2005)

Lyrics I Love: The Snow Leopard (Shearwater, 2008)

"the way is to climb
the way is to lie still
and let the moon do its work on your body

and then to rise
through forests and oceans of lives
and through the way of the black rocks, splitting, wide,
and flow
ten thousand miles."

well, i've had enough,
wasting my body, my life
i'll come away, come away from the shallows

but can this sullen child,
as bound as the ox that i ride,
climb to the heart of the white wind, singing, high,
and blow
through my frozen eyes?

LISTEN: Shearwater's "The Snow Leopard"

10 Years Ago:...BABY ONE MORE TIME (1999)

Perusing a supermarket tabloid today I was reminded that 10 years ago this month Britney Spears' first album was released. As I write this, I'm again listening to ...BABY ONE MORE TIME (yes, from start to finish.) Reluctantly, I have to say this: much as I wanted to hate this album when it came out in 1999 (and again tonight), it's just not that hateable. The album is well-produced and I'm forced to admit there was a brief moment in time when Britney Spears' vocals actually approached something akin to singing--key word "approached" since it's all vo-coded and processed like the Velveeta cheese her music has always been.

Musically, ...BABY ONE MORE TIME is completely corporate feel-good, sanitized-for-your-protection, hooky bubbly pop. It's a weird combo of understandably top-40 hits with pure camp bullshit like "E-Mail My Heart" (what a groaner) and the final track on which Britney, inexplicably, covers Sonny & Cher's "The Beat Goes On."

I still think the album cover is extraordinarily vulgar pop kiddie porn, with a beaming, slightly cross-eyed Britney on her knees, too-short skirt hitched up to here and the none-too-subtle shadowy opening between her thighs inviting every pervy uncle to feel good about ogling her no-no parts. I still think Britney's mother should have been locked up for pimping her underage daughter(s)--look at the fate of poor Jamie-Lynn! And I still question if there's ever been any "there" to Britney Spears beyond the packaging and marketing and generic video whoring (OK, arguably she was once a quite good dancer.)

I couldn't recommend this album to save my life since, as I mentioned, this is manufactured corporate poison. Nonetheless, I can admit that my pal Abi and I still swap dance mixes of more recent vintage Britney tracks. Clearly I am not entirely immune to the charms of Ms. Spears.

For the moment, I'll just tip my hat to the batshit crazy, ratty weave, half-dressed maniac who gave up her kids for another ride on the short bus to fame.

You are too much for me, Britney; I wish I knew how to quit you.

Groove of the Evening:k.d. lang's ALL YOU CAN EAT (1995)

She's not lyrically as specific a songwriter as her fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell, but Kathryn Dawn Lang has an amazing gift for metaphor and melody and those traits are on rich display in ALL YOU CAN EAT, probably my favorite of all k.d.'s albums. It is in some ways a sort of INGENUE TWO but I personally find it prettier and more open than that monster smash predecessor. Which makes sense: she'd come out, her best charting album was behind her, maybe the pressure was off. It's a laid back, sensuous, groovy album that snakes its way into your head. The layered harmonies (all k.d.; no other vocalists) are thick honey behind the lead vocal, That Gorgeous Voice. One of a kind she is. In a word: wow.

Happy Belated, Joan Baez (She Turned 68 On Friday)

I just realized I missed her birthday by two days but Happy Birthday to a lady who was singing in our house a lot when I was growing up (my mother liked her albums.) In honor of Joan's big day, I'm listening to her 2004 album BOWERY SONGS. It's a live album from a performance at the Bowery Ballroom in New York. It feels a fitting tribute since she's a Staten Island girl (who knew?) She's in exceptional voice on these recordings and I highly recommend them. It's the only Baez I own, actually, but I'm glad I have it; where else am I gonna find songs about deportees for that border mix CD?

Falling In Love Is Wonderful (1962)

Jimmy Scott possesses one of those voices that does me in--in a good way. His growth and vocal development were stunted by an affliction known as Kallmann Syndrome (delayed puberty) leaving him with a unique, gender-neutral singing voice. The first time I heard his high, reedy voice on CD in the mid-90s, I wanted to know the name of the woman behind such a mesmerizing sound! It took me a long time to reconcile the voice to the man.
FALLING IN LOVE IS WONDERFUL was meant to be Jimmy Scott's big breakthrough in 1962, after many years of having his vocals incorrectly attributed to female singers, or uncredited altogether on the recordings of Lionel Hampton and other swing bands. The album was produced by Ray Charles on Charles' own Tangerine label, and the arrangements are lovely, reminiscent of classic Nelson Riddle-style orchestrations that flatter both the songs and the singer. Upon the album's release, however, an unscrupulous former manager insisted that Scott was still under contract to a competing label (Savoy) and Tangerine had to cease and desist release of the new album. Scott attempted to record again in 1969 (the equally marvelous THE SOURCE) but again Savoy claimed ownership, so Jimmy Scott recordings were effectively embargoed for decades and his career collapsed. He worked as a hospital orderly and elevator operator for years.
The good news is that there has been a prolific second act to Scott's life & career. He was "re-discovered" and managed to get honest deals with legitimate studios in the early 1990s, and he has recorded an eclectic smorgasbord of songs: everything from "Over the Rainbow" to "Nothing Compares 2 U." His thwarted 1960s albums were finally re-released to great acclaim--with good reason, as FALLING IN LOVE IS WONDERFUL proves.
As one would expect, though, his voice had aged into a somewhat different instrument over the course of those 20+ years. The tone remained much the same: clarion, throbbing, insistent--but with each successive Scott release since 1992 (there have been MANY; it's hard not to sense him racing to catch up for the lost time) the voice grows frailer, the warble wider. Those affectations don't hurt my love for the songs or the man singing them, but they certainly shade the experience of hearing him sing. When I finally managed to hear him perform live at Lincoln Center last winter, I realized with regret that I had waited too late. As pleasurable as it was to show the man respect with applause, his performance with a young jazz combo was reduced to nearly unintelligible wailing, with not much strength or tone remaining.
FALLING IN LOVE...then, is really the best chance to listen and wonder "what could have been." Scott is in fantastic voice here, and it's amazing to hear what the singer Nancy Wilson heard, and indeed mimicked in her own recordings. To listen to Jimmy Scott's inspired broken-syllable phrasings is to hear the blueprint for Wilson's inimitable style. FALLING IN LOVE IS WONDERFUL is an album that is as good an introduction to Jimmy Scott as you are likely to find (though I'd be happy to recommend many others). If you don't know him already, suffice to say you should acquaint yourself.

Dinah Sings, Previn Plays (1960)

Simple is often better, and my Exhibit No. 1 of the moment is the simply gorgeous recording DINAH SINGS, PREVIN PLAYS (1960). Dinah is, of course, Dinah Shore of the "see the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet" jingles and her long-running talk shows of the 60s and 70s. The Previn accompanying her is Andre Previn of the long conducting career (gossip-hounds know that he was Mia Farrow's second husband.) The album material is strictly standards, many of them quite familiar from far more famous recordings, but there are a couple of lesser-known gems here, too, in particular "Like Someone In Love" and "Stars Fell On Alabama". There is an irresistible charm to Dinah's laid-back presentation and very slight Southern drawl (she was born and raised in Tennessee.) The album is intensely intimate, as though it were just you sitting in a darkened club, listening to a late-night set with Shore and Previn (with an occasional small combo backing them quietly.) Previn is a master accompanist and it's through his gorgeous playing and arrangements that the ear is directed to Shore's honeyed vocals (he worked with Doris Day to similar success on their DUET album in 1962). There's no fireworks here, no gimmicks, but that doesn't mean it's staid or boring--it's all really gorgeous. Highly Recommended.