Barbra’s thirty-fourth album, Partners, is not only brilliantly and cohesively produced by Babyface and Walter Afanasieff, but the pairings or rather “partners” on this record are superb! From Michael Bublé, John Mayer, John Legend and even her own son, Jason Gould, the album shimmers and confirms that even at 72, Streisand’s voice is still stellar! Definite highlights include: “It Had To Be You” (Bublé) “Come Rain or Come Shine (Mayer) “Evergreen” (Babyface) “The Way We Were” (Richie) and, of course, “How Deep is the Ocean” (Gould). This album proves what we have known about Barbra Streisand from the word Go: she is a musical genius.
Streisand’s appearance on Tonight Show last night was a truly “Must See TV.” From her charming medley with Jimmy Fallon, who filled in for Elvis, Blake Shelton, and Michael Bublé was not only delightful but so cute to watch. It is so obvious that Fallon is a Streisand fanboy, he even let her sit behind the host desk.
So if you’ve been reading any of my posts from 2012 you know, or should know by now, that I love all things STREISAND related. Next week, the legendary Streisand releases a brand new album entitled Partners, featuring 12 new recordings featuring the greatest male vocalists! By male vocalists I mean Josh Groban, John Mayer, John Legend, Lionel Richie, et al. Also she’s getting her own Sirius XM channel starting at 5pm this evening and running, for a special limited engagement, until October 10th!
Featured on Sirius Channel 69 “Escape,” Streisand’ s show will include a Town Hall that was recorded on Wednesday in New York City. A handful of lucky fans got to be in the same room with the legendary vocalist – Lucky devils! Color me completely jealous! That will air on Sunday, September 14th 12:00pm.
Columbia has lined up a complete slew of appearances to plug the new album, and it’s #1 on Amazon! Go BARBRA! For a complete list of her appearances you can visit my favorite site barbra-archives.com
Okay, that is enough Babs for today. I will be posting my full review of her album, Partners when it debuts next Tuesday!
Blogging and New Media
I just saw on Mashable that Facebook is taking cues from Snapchat and may be experimenting with “Disappearing Posts.” For anyone who uses the Snapchat app, we are all familiar with the 10 second window in which to see someone’s picture or video. Now according to writer, Adario Strange, that same feature may be coming to Facebook. You can read the article here. Apparently Facebook is running a small pilot program for a feature that “lets people schedule deletion of their posts in advance” (according to a Facebook spokesman). I’m not sure I’d be too keen on seeing my own posts expire or be deleted, but I wouldn’t mind seeing annoying posts disappear off my own newsfeed.
To be honest, I wish Facebook would just poll users and ask them what they would like to see happen with Facebook. What sort of integration would users like to see?! How would users improve the messenger app for iOS. Oh! Speaking of the messenger App, what exactly is Facebook planning for its iOS apps with the new iPhone 6 and iOS 8 due out soon?! Hmmm, that may be something to watch.
By the way, the Escape channel on Sirius XM is nothing but glorified elevator music, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Barbra: Back To Brooklyn
Barbra Streisand (Columbia, 2013) Audio CD
***** 5 stars
promotional image from germany, for “Back To Brooklyn”
I wrote this in a rush. Please excuse grammar errors, they are unintentional.
I remember seeing her on October 11, 2012 – it was a night I will never soon forget. Barbra was truly and utterly sublime. The audio recording is a marvel, the sound is fantastic. The orchestra sounds so lush and Streisand’s voice is front and center! Was she really 70 years old last fall?! Her voice remains beautifully intact after five decades of dazzling millions worldwide. There isn’t a single track on the CD that warrants skipping, honestly it’s Barbra, why would anyone skip over a song she sings.
The album opens with what has to be the greatest comeback song ever written, it is of course, “As If We Never Said Goodbye” from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, Sunset Boulevard. Streisand used it almost 20 years ago to open her triumph New Years Eve concert at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in 1993/94. Here, the song gets retooled with new lyrics to commemorate Barbra’s return to her hometown. Funny, poignant and moving, the crowd roars its approval when she reaches that immortal line, “I’ve come home at last” – simply amazing!
“The Way He Makes Me Feel” from Yentl, is one of the songs that Barbra has never performed live in concert! Now that the film has celebrated its 30th anniversary, the song is all the more special. Barbra’s voice sparkles here and it’s amazing to me how wonderful she sounds.
“Didn’t We” is a song Barbra sang live in 1972 for the McGovern fundraiser and her earlier version can of course be found on Live Concert at the Forum. I loved this when I heard it at the concert, Barbra’s voice is strong and the reverb on the big chord near the end is fantastic! I saw video footage from Phildelphia (10/8/12) and she talks about that back in 2006, she and music director, William Ross, tried to do the song but it didn’t work. I’m glad Barbra decided to try it out again, it’s wonderful!
“The Way We Were/Through the Eyes of Love” needs no introduction, her tribute to her dear and late friend, Marvin Hamlisch is so emotional. Listen to it! If you don’t get even a little misty-eyed then you have no soul.
“Rose’s Turn/Some People/Don’t Rain on My Parade” – The Styne medley is a killer, and possibly the best track on the album. Seriously, I repeated it like four times. Her shout at the end, “You bet your ass, Papa” is the best – it’s a remarkable statement to Streisand’s naysayers who frequently shout that she’s too old (or she can’t sing anymore) to play the role of Mama Rose in Styne and Sondheim’s Gypsy. Although it’s a missed opportunity, she could have tackled “Rose’s Turn” and ended the concert’s first act with a big bang. Nevertheless, it’s a showstopper as only Barbra can deliver!
“You’re The Top” is definitely from the second night (10/13) as during Thursday night’s performance, the song seemed clunky and out of place. It’s been polished and rehearsed, again with special lyrics dedicated to all things Brooklyn. Barbra really seems to have fun with it, so does the audience.
“What’ll I Do/My Funny Valentine and Lost Inside of You”
Despite the fact that I am thankful Chris Botti’s solos were cut from the audio CD, his duets with Barbra are wonderful and his trumpet playing is a great compliment to her voice. I also love the arrangements of these pieces. The high note near the end of “Lost Inside of You” gets a great reaction from the audience.
“How Deep is the Ocean”
Jason Gould has a beautiful voice. Obviously, he has inherited his mother’s gift of singing. The mother and son duet is beautiful! Don’t take my word for it, give it a listen.
“People”
How many version of this song has she performed live?! Not that it matters, this one is just as beautiful as any of the others!
“Make Our Garden Grow”
This is the big finale and Barbra delivers her money-note at the end with great gusto! This is identical to the arrangement Rupert Holmes did in 1988 for the abandoned Back To Broadway sessions. It’s funny too, IL Volo also sings but their duet with Barbra on “Smile” isn’t included. The end of truncated as the tail end of “Somewhere” is left off, which was heard during the concert. I love this song from Candide, and I can only hope that the studio version of it recorded in 1988 will come out soon!
The Voice: I just read a recent review front the New York Daily News, in which Jim Farber writes, “…her lower notes have a phlegmier texture. When she wants to belt, she turns hoarse before chopping the note down to a length she can sustain. That means bravura numbers, like “Don’t Rain on My Parade” or a rare “Rose’s Turn” from “Gypsy,” have to borrow some of their drama from acting rather than vocal chops.” I will admit, Barbra’s voice has lowered since her last live concert tour in 2006. No, she doesn’t sound like she did 20 years, even 30 years ago – but who would expect her to? The woman is 71 years old. Yes Mr. Farber is entitled to his opinion; however, I think he’s being a bit unfair – obviously he forgets that the voice is also part of the body, it ages too. Barbra is well aware of her narrowing vocal range, but does that stop her?! No. The concert tour was still SOLD OUT. Age has unfortunately taken some of her higher register; however, her middle range is lush and intact. On such gems like, “The Way He Makes Me Feel” you can hardly tell that her voice has aged at all.
Verdict: Barbra is in fine form on the album, I am stunned that she is 71 years old.. truly! This definitely deserves repeated playing. The mastering is great, there’s a real improvement in this CD than the two disc 2006 outing. Too bad we don’t get any extras (read: bonus tracks) like “On A Clear Day” which was used as an opener later in the tour and there are other varied songs that Barbra performed elsewhere but not in Brooklyn.
Even if the government is still shutdown and democrats and GOP members continue to squabble about the country’s debt, Obamacare, workers being furloughed, etc I find solace in music and music news. Here are a few things I’ve been thinking about over the past week.
Despite the strong returns (100% ticket sales) on Barbra’s 2012 North American tour, I find it troubling, if not perplexing, that Back to Brooklyn has only been touted to be a one disc affair (versus two, like her three previous concerts) from Streisand’s long-time label, Columbia Records. Given that CD sales have slouched in favor of the more the digital iTunes, and other digital media outlets, is this just a sign of the times or is Columbia losing faith in Streisand as a record selling artist, deciding instead to devote more money to its younger, more hip artists and record buyers?
Can Barbra Streisand still sell records?
Instead of a exclusive deal with QVC, PBS is broadcasting the concert for their fall festival this year. The concert will air next month (for the Winter membership drive) hopefully with extra footage from other concert dates or her summer tour in Europe. The official Press Release from PBS is found here I will not even touch on the subject of the cover art for Brooklyn which has divided fans, some love and others find it cheap, almost fan made – a departure from the usual meticulously planned cover art that Streisand herself usually supervises.
Cover Art for Barbra’s new live album and DVD “Back To Brooklyn”
Given that Barbra has been with the same record company for her entire career, I feel like there was a missed opportunity to celebrate her golden anniversary with a major promotional product push in 2012 (i.e. the fabled 12 disc set that has been rumored about for a while now). In 1991 to celebrate her 30th anniversary, Columbia Records released Just For The Record, a four disc compendium of Barbra’s recording history, featuring rare and unreleased tracks. However, according to Barbra-archives.com, the set was originally mentioned in 1983, it was finally released in 1991. Granted Release Me, last year’s release before her concert tour was a nice compilation of unreleased material from Streisand’s vault, I still think it was a missed chance to do something BIG to keep Barbra Streisand in the forefront of the record buying public.
With speculation of Barbra doing Gypsy having cooled, and the disappointment at the box office with The Guilt Trip, I guess I just worry about Barbra’s staying power as she makes her way into her 70s.
Apparently, she is still working on the Duets album with Walter Afanasieff and Kenneth ‘Babyface’ Edmonds; however, it is anyones guess when that project is being released, possibly early next year?!
Just today, Mary J. Blige and producer David Foster released A Mary Christmas, MJB’s first full length Christmas recording. The album includes a marvelous duet with Barbra Streisand on “When You Wish Upon a Star” and features Chris Botti on trumpet. Fans of Streisand, on the Barbra Streisand forum, were at odds with whether Streisand’s vocals were new or old. Listening to the album and the track itself, they were decidedly NEW and is well worth buying the entire album – which, I might add, is fantastic.
There are thirty-four days until Back To Brooklyn hits record stores and online.
Last year on October 11, 2012, I was in New York almost 16 years after my first visit. 10/11/12 was a very special for me because at age 24, I was finally seeing BARBRA STREISAND live in concert. After more than 20 years of wishing and waiting, I got to see a entertainment legend on stage! Some may think it silly to mark the occasion, but I cannot help myself. It seems appropriate to do so on my blog, after all I did blog about how I desperately wanted tickets to see her perform.
I have preordered her CD and Deluxe CD/DVD combo of Back to Brooklyn, which is due to be released from Columbia Records on November 19th!
Since the concert was 10/11/12, I truly think the record company could have just gone ahead and prepared the concert DVD for release on 11/12/13!
I miss Brooklyn, I think it is high time I visit again.
Since Columbia released the vinyl edition of Release Me on September 25th, the company has posted other tracks on Soundcloud for all to hear. Finally, the album was released today, and I also got notification that QVC shipped my CD/DVD set. I love every track on the recording. Most fans have been dying to hear these unreleased gems for decades. After years of waiting and wishing, Barbra fans have them in three formats: CD, vinyl and digital download. The vinyl edition of the album took me by surprise for reasons: she said back in 1986, “I never want to hear vinyl again,” and Love Is The Answer Barbra’s 2009 offering had a double-Lp release that was super limited. I find it so intriguing that after not having a vinyl pressing of a Barbra Streisand for decades, her 2012 release of “unreleased” material gets released on Lp. Nice choice for Columbia to do that, or did Barbra Streisand change her tune on conventional records?
Here are my thoughts on my favorite tracks:
“Being Good Isn’t Good Enough,” an outtake from the 1985 Broadway Album sessions, opens the album with an anthem that seems to be perfect for Streisand – “being good isn’t good enough.” The song perfectly summarizes Streisand. Once labeled a perfectionist, the lyrics suit the ideal that being good just isn’t enough. In musical terms this is true, if Streisand heard a wrong note, or was unhappy with her vocal take, she would shelve a song or perhaps an entire session of work. The track was supposed to open the GRAMMY winning album; however, the business related “Putting it Together” by Stephen Sondheim with commentary on Streisand’s struggles in the music made the album.
“Didn’t We” is a classic Jimmy Webb song, which was featured during Streisand’s live concert at the Forum. Strangely enough, it didn’t have a studio version release. That injustice has been corrected. Streisand’s voice soars on the track and blows her live version from 1972 out of the water.
“Willow Weep For Me” recorded during the Simply Streisand sessions with Ray Ellis, in 1967, is beautiful, jazzy and smooth. The arrangement by Ellis is perfectly suited to Streisand’s early voice.
“How Are Things in Glocca Morra?/Heather on the Hill” – The medley of two classic Broadway songs, is from the 1988 Back to Broadway sessions with the brilliant Rupert Holmes, who had created the successful Mystery of Edwin Drood for Broadway in 1986. The wonderful thing about these sessions is they’re available on YouTube. The video footage of Barbra in full recording mode is fascinating, albeit dated. The process of recording the arrangement, tempo, orchestra and voice just right is so intriguing. Amazingly, Streisand makes it all look and sound effortless. The track on Release Me is just beautiful. Editorializing, I wish she had gone ahead with her Back to Broadway sessions in 1988, instead of what Columbia released in 1993.
“Mother And Child” is a duet between Barbra and herself in two roles: mother and child. The track is taken from a Michel Legrand (and Bergman) song cycle from the 1970s. The song is wonderful, almost something from Sesame Street like the classic “Sing” by Joe Raposo. I love the whole thing. When I was listening to the song, for some reason, I shed tears. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it was the lyrics? The Music? I don’t know. Subesquently listenings moved me to tears as well.
“Home” – from The Wiz was made famous by Diana Ross when she sang the song in the motion picture version of the musical. Streisand’s interpretation doesn’t offer anything new; however, she does add her signature styling to the song. The song was recorded initially for the The Broadway Album in 1985. Fortunately, the arrangement has been slightly updated to fully realize the potential of the song. Barbra is in her element on this song. She should include it on her new tour!
I’ve had a lot of things come up here of late, so I’ve been neglecting my blog.
Here’s what I’ve got going on in my life:
October 7: Orientation (Amazon) 7:00 to 3:00p.m.
October 11: BARBRA STREISAND: Back to Brooklyn 7:00p.m.
October 20: First day of work
I’m also doing research on two term papers that are due the 23rd and 1st of November.
First, I’m doing research for my formal essay in Grammar class. I’d like to talk about comma splices, and the difficulties some people have with proofreading their own work.
But as I’m doing my research, I’ve come a bitter understanding: I suck at English. I suck at writing grammatical sentences. I’ve even started to question why I majored in English in the first place.
It annoys me, angers me, and pisses me off when I see friends of mine excelling at academic writing. I have never been able to write an error free paper; although, I have tried over the past 5 years to educate myself on my own grammar pitfalls. Nothing ever seems to stick.
I had a grammar exam tuesday and I don’t know the results until next week.
Music is speaks to every part of the body. It speaks to ones soul, it has healing qualities and can transform lives. Barbra Streisand is an artist that is so cathartic to me. Her musical genius is nothing short of inspirational. I remember the first time I saw Barbra, it was watching a really old VHS tape of Funny Girl. Everything about that film amazed me. The music, the story, the colors, the sets, the costumes – it all fascinated me. What thrilled me most was Barbra’s voice. I remember I was about 4 or 5 when I first saw the film and I was hooked.
As a child, I remember staying at home a lot with my mother. I would take naps in my bedroom, and mother would clean the house and turn on the stereo in the living room. To make the cleaning go faster, she would crank up the music and sing along to it. I wasn’t sure what I enjoyed more – my mother singing or the music playing in the background. One of the first Barbra Streisand albums I can remember hearing is “The Broadway Album.” Everything about the album at the time fascinated me. I often asked my mother to repeat the album, over and over and over again. Every song was wonderful, Barbra’s voice took me to far off places, and introduced to so many different characters. I learned about musical theatre thanks in part to that album.
“The Broadway Album” became an irrevocable part of my life. Every song seemed tailor made for some aspect of my life. I would ask my mother, “How did they do that?” (talking about an aspect of the production of a certain song) or “Why does Barbra sing this note?” I remember asking my piano teacher when I was 7 years old, if she would teach me songs from the album. By this time I was picking out tunes by ear, trying in some way to get everything I heard onto my tiny keyboard. I wanted to recreate the space-age atmosphere in “Somewhere,” and play the business driven anthem “Putting it Together” and I was just seven years old!
I’ve written about this album before, and I have no issue with returning to it because it’s made such an impact on my life. As I wrote in a old blog post, “Music, for me, has always been cathartic. When ever I’m down or depressed, I turn to it. When I was twelve, my life was in true turmoil. There were issues at home, my sister had just joined the Navy and my school life was complete torment. Music saved me. The ability to play music and express myself at the piano transformed my pain and anguish. I was liberated. I relished in the ability to get lost in music, to listen to it, to play it, for it was always there.” I still believe that, even today.
These days, I’m more fascinated with how music is created: how albums are arranged, orchestrated. How arrangers go about figuring out the instrumentation for a certain piece of music. A good example of this fascination is with a certain song performed by Barbra Streisand. “Putting it Together” by Stephen Sondheim was written by the composer/lyricist for his 1984 musical “Sunday in the Park with George.”
The song details the difficult struggle between art and business and has the unique stylistic features that are so indicative of a Sondheim composition. My fascination is not with the vocals of Streisand, but the arrangement specifically recorded by the artist in 1985. Peter Matz (who arranged the first three albums by Streisand in the early 1960′s) is arranger/conductor on “The Broadway Album” and his vision for the first cut of the album has always amazed me. The beauty of it, the style, the use of synthesizer, orchestra, percussion all come together in a cohesive piece. (I love synthesizers, don’t ask me why) What I find even more interesting is how different the track is from the HBO Special Putting it Together: Making The Broadway (1986) when Barbra actually does a take of the song complete with orchestra and the commentary by David Geffin, Ken Sylk and the late Sydney Pollack, versus the one on the final release of the album.
All the aspects of a music: ideas, formulation, instrumentation and arrangement I have always been keenly aware of. With certain singers or pieces of music, that awareness is heightened and my “Why” and “How does that happen” kick in. I always want to know how and why. Especially in music. How does something make a certain sound? How can you color a certain song with a different arrangement? What does an arranger zero in on when formulating a chart of music?
My freak adoration of music has perplexed me for so long, I even wanted to make it part of my academic career. When I was first at MTSU and in the honors college, I was told I could do my Honors Thesis on anything I could think of, pending approval. I immediately thought “Music.” Wild ideas chased each other around my head: Could I ask Columbia to examine the master tapes of Streisand’s 1985 sessions? Are there instrumental tracks without Barbra’s vocals mixed in? I envisioned myself doing a 70-150 page examination of how orchestrators, past and present created music for the entertainment icon. Sadly, that never came to pass. I still have tons of questions I’d love to ask Streisand and her “team.” To add insult to injury, David Foster, (who produced “Somewhere” on the album) also created a duet for the young soprano, Jackie Evancho for her debut album “Dream with Me.” The duet between Streisand and Evancho uses 1985 outtakes of “Somewhere,” further fueling obsession.
After twenty years of waiting and dreaming, and after years of listening to the 1994, 2000 and 2006 concert albums and seeing recorded footage on tape or DVD – my dream has finally come true. I have tickets to see BARBRA STREISAND live in concert “Barbra: Back to Brooklyn” October 11, 2012.
These past few days have been a nightmare. Freaking out about not being able secure tickets, annoyed about ticketmaster’s automated system and the agony of not getting the seats or the price range one wants.
I get to return to New York and see Barbra live. Not only that, but I also get the chance to meet fellow Barbra fans, many of whom have been very supportive and helpful in the melee over this possible ONE night only event. Although, fans doubt Streisand would schlep all the way to her hometown just for one night. Most people I’ve talked to (and befriended) are sure that if sales are brisk (as the Pre-sales have been incredibly hot) Barbra’s concert team will gladly add a second night.
Finally, after years of dreaming!
Barbra’s people announced that there would be a second pre sale today, but they failed to inform fans when it would be. As of right now I’ve been up for over 12 hours, since 12a.m. this morning. American Express started their pre sale today and will last a week (up until general sale on the 21st). Ticketmaster “gladly accepts” AmEx cards, so that drove a lot of fans crazy. On Facebook there’s a group called “Barbra Brooklyn Fan Group – Join Us For The Fun” with all sorts of people rejoicing over getting tickets or complaining about ticketmaster itself. I feel like I’ve made several new friends over the past 2 days.
“There are moments you wait for and dream of, all your life. This is one of those moments.”
– Alan and Marilyn Bergman
As of May 29th, there has been a second date added (October 13, 2012) due to the first night being sold out in mere minutes.
"... for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts, and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life and rest in unvisited tombs."
Musings of an English Major 