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Barbra Gives a Master Class |
News/October 2009 |
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In another extraordinary interview,
Barbra Streisand spoke with Paul
Gambaccini of the BBC during a two hour radio
interview and gave, what turned out to be,
a Master Class on "Love Is The Answer." |
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Barbra
Gives
Master
Class on
"Love Is
The
Answer"
October 3, 2009
Over at the BBC, Barbra Streisand gave yet another
in-depth interview. This time it was with radio DJ Paul Gambaccini. Taped last week and
broadcast today as a 2 hour special called "Barbra Streisand The Way I
Am," Gambaccini guided Barbra through a series of well researched
questions. His discussion with Barbra was a master class that focused
on the nuances and technical aspects of her musical style. As part of
this extraordinary discussion, "Love Is The Answer" received an
in-depth analysis with Barbra offering a first hand primer before each
of nine selections that were played:
"Some Other Time"
"I hadn't remembered it, although I was offered the part in 'On
The Town' by Leonard Bernstein in 1961 when Elliott Gould, we
were both offered it, he did it. And that song was in that show,
so I had vaguely remembered it."
"In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning"
"I loved him [Sinatra]. He was really cool. I think he's
probably the greatest male pop singer ever. That's why I didn't
open the album with 'In The Wee Small Hours' because I feel that
it's his song in a sense. So I put it second."
"Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most"
" 'Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most' was given to me by
Fran Landsman when I was 18 or 19 years old, singing for the
first time after the Bon Soir, singing in St. Louis. She wrote
the song ... I had forgotten that I recorded the song in 1967.
One of my assistants reminded me. I said, 'Really? Get me a copy
of this out of the vaults.' I never thought we did a definitive
version of it with orchestra. So I did it again."
"Here's To Life"
"At first I thought I shouldn't touch it [Shirley Horn's
version] and then I asked my A&R guy Jay Landers to find out how
many it sold. And he found out it only sold 150,000 copies. So I
said 'I can sing it then' because the song is so wonderful that
more people should know it. But otherwise, I wouldn't have
touched it because she's amazing."
"If You Go Away"
"I do like Dusty Springfield and she did a nice record of 'Ne Me
Quitte Pas' I didn't want to do it like her, so I chose to do it
more like the original Jacques Brel kind of record."
""Make Someone Happy"
Gambaccini: "You have, in the liner notes of 'Love Is The
Answer' included a tribute to Barak Obama. In 'Make Someone
Happy' you altered the verses for a benefit for him."
Barbra: "Yeah, I did that one."
"Gentle Rain"
"Every night on tour I would warm up on sound check. I would
always use 'Gentle Rain' because it was so relaxing and easy.
Diana [Krall] had recorded it, too."
"Love Dance"
"She [Nancy Wilson] sings it entirely differently, and really
well, so I didn't want to copy her arrangement. I just thought
I'd return to its roots, because then I heard someone else sing
it as it was written, as a bossa nova."
"Here's That Rainy Day"
"That was a great thing that Diana did. She said she wasn't
comfortable playing the piano during the orchestrations. She
likes to do her own thing. So she brought in other pianists so
she could do the solos on several others ['Here's That Rainy
Day']." |
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