WHAT NYMITH SAYS
If you want to know who was keeping the Songbook "alive" in the rock and roll era, a quick listen to Stormy Weather will supply the answer. It's as if Lena Horne knew that the golden era was over and rather than let herself be pushed meekly into the shadows, she pushed back and recorded this feisty album - or maybe she was just venting frustration over the blacklisting that had stalled her career in the first half of the decade (her first studio album got released in 1955 but unfortunately we missed it while doing that year).
Horne never was a jazz singer - in her youth she sang straight sentimental pop, lushly orchestrated and pleasant on the ears. After being released from Hollywood she became a premier nightclub performer and her live album At the Waldorf-Astoria became RCA's top-selling record by a female artist. The most remarkable aspect to her recording career is how she transformed herself from a pleasant but routine singer in the 1940s (another in a long line of impeccably trained mechanical songbirds) into Lena Horne, a forceful, smouldering presence with astonishingly modern phrasing. When did it happen? What was the catalyst?
Having given a listen to the Waldorf album I suspect she learned it through the nightclub circuit. Above all else, put on a show. Give em a good time, vary the mood - be a little saucy, a little torchy; make them laugh and then sober them up. Start happy, end happy, but take them for a ride. This made her popular in her time but seems to have had the opposite effect on subsequent listeners, putting her firmly in the second tier after giants like Ella and Billie. Snobs who value "technique" above all else are only part of the reason. A lot of people reach for the old Songbook singers for some mellow, "easy listening" comfort. Those people when they put on Stormy Weather will not be pleased. Too loud, too unrestrained. This lady doesn't just croon, she bellows.
It all begins with 'Tomorrow Mountain,' an upbeat vision of a morally bankrupt paradise selected from Beggar's Holiday, a musical update on the 18th Century play The Beggar's Opera (itself the inspiration for The Threepenny Opera) that was written by John La Touche and composed by Duke Ellington. Just this backstory gives Stormy Weather an edge in its industry. But the attraction isn't the song - it's Lena's smoking delivery that blows the mind, especially when attached to ridiculous proto-psychedelic lines like "marshmallows bloom already toasted / and the clouds are made of marmalade and jam." Nobody else could have done this song justice. Lena owns it, hands down.
Vivacity is the key. Listen to her take on 'Ridin' on the Moon' and compare her full-throttle delivery to other singers of the day. Peggy Lee? Wasn't her style. Ella? Too well-mannered. Tony Bennett may have been the only one who could rival this approach but he still lacked the modernity of phrasing. The one-two punch of 'Baby Won't You Please Come Home' and 'Any Place I Hang My Hat is Home' really proves the point. You could actually lift the vocal straight out of the latter and give it a rock backing (a weird thought, but one I had) and it would fit right in.
A lot of praise has to go to husband Lennie Hayton's orchestra as well, as it possesses the crackle and attitude of the New York school of orchestration, rather than the smothering syrup of the Hollywood school. Hayton props up Lena's performances without distracting from them and even goes for some creative additions, such as channelling Moises Vivanco to give 'Out of This World' a taste of exotica. Then there's whoever's responsible for the song selection, as it's formally impeccable; leaning heavily on the bygone classics and ignoring the kitschy material that helped Lena break up any possible monotony while performing live but would have damaged the glamour image Stormy Weather was clearly going for. Instead we get the best songs by Arlen (represented five times over, no less), Gershwin, Coward, Porter - the guys who set the gold standard.
In fact, the weakest reading here is (surprisingly) of 'Summertime.' It seems like Horne was experimenting with a theatrical reading, but 'Summertime' is a sultry number at heart and this aggressive style is an uncomfortable (though interesting) fit. Trying to take it some place else is commendable though - especially when the song is a standard and the people involved aren't rock and rollers. She uses the same theatrical tactic on her signature song 'Stormy Weather,' where it makes more sense. Both of these numbers are plenty memorable, so it's not worth docking points.
To conclude: Stormy Weather is an easy pinnacle of Songbook interpretation and, as I've made abundantly clear, it gets my highest recommendation. Make this your introduction to the genre and you will never mistake it for "easy listening" music again. I know that's how it worked for me.
WHAT TICHARU SAYS
Some music requires more effort than others. Lena Horne requires a little effort. You have to sit still and let her assault you.
"But she seems to be shouting at me Tich! Why is she so animated?"
Because Lena Horne takes performance to a new level. It's the chew you up and spit you out performance that you crave. If you turn the stereo off before she's finished it won't happen for you.
I must admit it took me a while to build up a tolerance for this kind of full throated performance from the 1950s. At first I could only take it in small doses. Tomorrow Mountain and I needed a cup of camomile tea. It wasn't until I heard I'd Do Anything (not on this album) that I really got Lena Horne. She didn't just sing the song. She became the song. She owned it body and soul and so far as I can tell for the year 1957, she owns it too.
What was there for competition? Miles Davis was starting to formulate something worthwhile certainly. Chuck Berry was lending some depth to the Rock 'n Roll chart. Martin Denny? Take a trip to Hawaii... otherwise get hold of this Lena Horne album and enjoy the ride!
No comments:
Post a Comment