Winter 2000
Mary Cleere Haran
and
Richard Rodney Bennett:
The Memory of All That: Gershwin On Broadway and In Hollywood
Managra Music (MMI-100199-2), U.S., 1999
Reviewed
by Alfred Zelcer (New York City)
It's very clear it's not just our love that's here to stay. If there was
the slightest doubt that George Gershwin's centenary may just be passing
fancy and in time may go, there is ongoing evidence that the celebration
is far from over. The crowds clamor for more (as another songwriter observed),
and obliging the haunting tattoo (do it again, do it again...), Mary Cleere
Haran and Richard Rodney Bennett step in to pay tribute with their pick
of Gershwin gold.
A thoughtfully crafted program, it leans heavily on classic Gershwin,
arguably the best American Popular music we've ever had, while including
a handful of lesser known songs. As evidenced by the entertaining archeological
digs of Ben Bagley, lesser known material, even from great composers,
often carries self-evident reasons why it's lesser known. Gershwin might
be the one exception to this, and Nashville Nightingale is a good example.
Haran and Bennett's voices blend with the warmth of room-temperature butter
meeting homemade blueberry muffins, adding Linc Milliman's bass as a dollop
of honey in the mix. And the mix works just as attractively in a medley
patch of Sweet and Low Down, Fidgety Feet and Fascinatin’
Rhythm, and in I'd Rather Charleston, an endearing counterpoint
of Bennett’s Rudy Vallee to Haran’s Helen Kane.
Haran certainly gets my attention by taking on I'll Build a Stairway
to Paradise, a testosterone-charged anthem if ever there was one.
Even if the song's history didn't support that, it exudes braggadocio
that Haran is at odds emulating – even as I can see how attractively she’d
pull this off in top hat and tails.
Unexpected too is Haran's treatment of The Man I Love, where she
suggests a lightweight channeling of Helen Morgan. Dropping down to a
lower register and with a melodramatic intent, the song is presented in
the mannered fashion of its heyday. No doubt the effect is a knockout
as part of a cabaret performance. Here, without benefit of atmospherics
and Haran's ice/hot patter, it’s a little odd.
Things brighten considerably with 'S Wonderful, introduced by the
seldom heard verse. Bennett's exquisite arrangement, a sinuous rumba punctuated
by unexpectedly poignant harmonies, truly makes this song fly anew. Someone
to Watch Over Me, surely one of ten best-loved songs in the Great
American Songbook, unfolds here with a shy and tentative reading, a repeat
of the verse, and then a lush instrumental treatment by Bennett. When
Haran picks up the song again, it is with a less familiar set of lyrics,
always a welcome pleasure in well-trafficked classics. Pleasurable too
is Who Cares?, given enormous presence by means of turning it into
a towering affirmation. Funny Face receives a dreamy vocal caress
that glides perfectly on Bennett's churning of the beautiful melody, echoing
the patented Gershwin classical sound.
On the experimental front, Do It Again plumbs the depth of what
comes off as an unhappy sexual experience begging to be repeated. A song
available to a wistful or playful approach, Haran and Bennett boldly shape
one of their own, alas, a lugubrious version that gives the fairly innocent
request a dark and troubled subtext. This trend, reminiscent of the June
Christy-Pete Rugolo collaborations that on occasion pushed exploration
to disastrous effect (turning Kern and Field's exquisite Remind Me
into an atonal, psychic dirge), is nonetheless understandable. The over-familiarity
of much of what makes up the Great American Songbook begs for fresh interpretation,
and the Gershwin canon almost demands it. Since much freshness is apparent
throughout this recording, the occasional flawed experiment is easy to
overlook.
The booklet features a stylish cover drawing by the excellent set designer
Tony Walton, as well as a love letter to Haran by the fine playwright
John Guare. Frustratingly, there’s no indication of the year in which
each song was first performed, nor of the play or film of each song’s
origin.
Tracks (all lyrics by Ira Gershwin, except where noted)
1. The Real American Folk Song
2. 'S Wonderful
3. Do It Again (de Sylva)
4. Nashville Nightingale (Caesar)
5. The Man I Love
6. I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise (Francis, Sylva)
7. I'd Rather Charleston (Carter)
8. Funny Face
9. Sweet and Lown Down / Fidgety Feet / Fascinatin’ Rhythm
10. Someone to Watch Over Me
11. Boy, What Love Has Done to Me
12. They All Laughed
13. I Can't Be Bothered Now / They Can't Take That Away from Me / Wake
Up, Brother and Dance / Shall We Dance?
14. Love Walked In
15. Who Cares?
16. Lady, Be Good
17. Somebody Loves Me (de Sylva, MacDonald)
