Idol Watch

Songwriter Jerry Lieber dies at 78.

 
Songwriter Jerry Lieber, of Lieber and Stoller fame, has died at age 78 of cardiopulmonary failure. With songwriting partner, Lieber composed countless 50s and 60s rock and roll hits, including Hound Dog, Love Potion #9 and Under the Boardwalk. American Idol has dedicted one of its theme nights to the music of Lieber and Stoller.

Here's an interview I did with Jerry in April 1997 for The Miami Herald when a jukebox musical based around the team's songs played at Broward Center.

SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE OPEN FOR BUSINESS MUSICAL CELEBRATES SONGS OF LIEBER AND STOLLER
BYLINE: HOWARD COHEN Herald Staff Writer
As rapidly as you sing, "you ain't nothing but a hound dog," you can say LeiberandStoller, two names said in one pass. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were responsible for so many songs during rock-'n'-roll's first gold rush their first names aren't necessary anymore.

One of contemporary music's most successful songwriting partnerships ever, Leiber (lyrics) and Stoller (music) have cranked out hits for Elvis Presley ( Hound Dog, Jailhouse Rock, Don't ), the Coasters ( Yakety Yak, Charlie Brown, Young Blood ), Ben E. King ( I [Who Have Nothing], Stand By Me, Spanish Harlem ) and countless others.

The songs are among the 40 classics revived in Smokey Joe's Cafe -- The Songs of Leiber and Stoller. The musical, part of the Broadway Series, opens Tuesday night at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts and runs through April 27, then moves to the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami Beach for a week's run. Its title comes from The Robins' 1955 R&B hit written by the duo.

Smokey Joe's Cafe debuted on Broadway two years ago to glowing reviews, and Leiber thinks the interest in his old songs, along with the warm reception given to Grease and similar productions, indicates audience nostalgia for earlier times.

"These songs conjure up a time that was easier and more attractive in many ways than the uncertainty of the world we're living in today," Leiber said.

But unlike the story-driven Grease, Smokey Joe's Cafe doesn't follow a narrative; rather, its nine-member cast sings and dances on an atmospheric stage set designed around the individual songs. Leiber thinks it allows the audience to enjoy their own memories.

"People are not watching a show and are not following a story because the story coming from the stage is fragmented and uncertain," Leiber said. "What they are doing is experiencing their own stories associated with those songs."

Four decades after they created their quintessential teen rebellion songs, antecedents for today's rap and rock, Leiber insists there must be something more than just nostalgia to account for the success of Smokey Joe's Cafe.

"The audiences are younger and older; kids are in there with their grandparents. I've seen that in every production," Leiber said.

The secret, he thinks, is that "We really never wrote for an audience; we always wrote for ourselves. If we really liked it and it was funny, then we'd make the record and put it out. Nine out of 10 times it would be a hit. We weren't slick or smart or knew more than anyone. We just played the things for ourselves instead of trying to anticipate what a group would go for or what the market would go for."

Leiber and Stoller first teamed up when they met as 17-year-olds in Los Angeles in 1950. Looking back, Leiber said he most enjoyed working with The Coasters, but that no, Elvis Presley's recording of Hound Dog isn't his favorite.

"Big Mama Thornton's [1953] version is the quintessential version," he said. "Big Mama's record is the way the song was written to be performed vocally and instrumentally. Presley's was kind of rockabilly."

These days the two, who live in New York, no longer write rock 'n' roll, having grown bored with the genre in the 1960s. Instead they compose cabaret-styled pieces. But public interest remains strongest in their earlier work.

Leiber admires the songwriting of the Beatles, Randy Newman and the Elton John/Bernie Taupin partnership.

"Pop music is always a reflection of what's going on. It's a flag being sent up from some area of culture telling you what's happening," he said.

For more, follow @HowardCohen on Twitter.

Review: Barbra Streisand's 'What Matters Most'

UPDATE: An edited version of this review will run in The Miami Herald's Tropical Life section Wednesday. It is also online by clicking on miamiherald.com/Entertainment.

She's not an American Idol, but, for more than 48 years, she's certainly been an American idol and her songs have featured on the popular vocal competition show. Remember season three runner-up Diana DeGarmo's exemplary run through No More Tears (Enough is Enough)?

So with that said, a review of the new Barbra Streisand album can take its place in the Idol Watch blog while Idol is on summer/fall hiatus. The CD, in regular single disc and a deluxe two-disc set, will be in stores and online sites Tuesday, Aug. 23:

 
Barbra Streisand: What Matters Most: Barbra Streisand Sings the Lyrics of Alan and Marilyn Bergman (Columbia). 3.5 out of 4 stars.

Among the many essays found within the lavish CD packaging, Barbra Streisand writes of celebrated pop music lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman, the married couple "have a remarkable gift for expressing affairs of the heart. To give you some idea as to how much I admire their lyrics, I've already recorded 51 of their songs ... and with this new collection it will be 63!"

There are 10 new performances of Bergman songs on What Matters Most, but who's counting?

If Streisand's math is faulty, the same can't be said of her instrument or for her taste in selecting material. What Matters Most continues the upward trend, late career artistic renaissance begun with the 2007 release, Live in Concert 2006, which was partly recorded at her BankAtlantic concert in Sunrise, the Diana Krall-produced jazz album, Love Is the Answer in 2009 and last year's Live at the Village Vanguard CD/DVD set.

As on those releases, Streisand's voice, now at age 69, has deepened and grown richer, warmer. Though the years have taken some of her top range, her expressiveness remains peerless. It can be argued that Streisand is even superior to her younger self where, on early recordings, she could be shrill and overly dramatic. (Tried to get through 1963's Grammy-winning The Barbra Streisand Album lately? Neither have I.)

 That's not a problem here. The highlight comes at the top with, arguably, the finest version of The Windmills of Your Mind to date. With music from Michel Legrand and originally from 1968's original The Thomas Crown Affair movie, the Bergman's Windmills has been recorded by Noel Harrison, Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark, Sting, Johnny Mathis and countless others. But Streisand's inherent understanding of a lyric, down to the minute detail of an accented syllable, transcends all.

 She begins this version daringly a capella. A lone pluck of a Gayle Levant's harp accents and moves the melody forward as a lush orchestra politely and then commandingly joins the proceedings. One gets the impression the other musicians were so taken by Streisand's bell-like singing, they couldn't bear to join in and distract from the beauty they were witnessing in that California studio. The track brings to mind the tone and delivery of Streisand's other memorable Legrand/Bergman full-length collaboration, the Yentl soundtrack and film in 1983, and that's a fine place to start.

Nice 'n Easy she sings in her cover of a 1960 Frank Sinatra album title tune and that describes the pace of the new album. Eight of the 10 songs are ballads, but where this was a problem with previous disappointments like The Movie Album and A Love Like Ours a decade or so ago, What Matters Most thrives in this unhurried environment. The arrangements are full-bodied, artful, engaged and the album doesn't drag.

 Repeat listens reveal nuances built into bossa novas like So Many Stars (a 60s hit for Sergio Mendes) and the luxurient Solitary Moon. That Face, made famous by Fred Astaire, sparks off its swinging big band tempo. But where Streisand distances herself from her competition, and slavish, non-creative upstarts like Glee's Lea Michele, is in the originality department and her smarts.

 Rather than a note-for-note reproduction of Sinatra's Nice 'n Easy -- which plenty of listeners would surely have accepted -- Streisand never settles for the easy way. She refreshes the Sinatra tune by taking it at a leisurely tempo at first, accentuating the "nice and easy" command of the lyric and steadily builds the tempo until it resembles and distinguishes itself next to Old Blue Eyes' Capitol Records-era blueprint. What Matters Most is the equivalent of those great Sinatra concept albums of the mid 1950s and '60s; albums that, like fine wine and furniture, appreciate with time. No one else is doing exactly that any more.

What Matters Most also adds 10 previously released Streisand-Bergman performances on a second CD in the Deluxe version. Familiar favorites like The Way We Were, You Don't Bring Me Flowers (a 1978 duet with Neil Diamond), Papa, Can You Hear Me? and What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? will already be in most Streisand households, and the tunes don't appear to be remastered from earlier remasters. But the grouping is of value for the way it introduces overlooked material like the gorgeous After the Rain, from 1979's underrated Wet album. Plus, it's always a treat to hear the bonus disc's closing track, A Piece of Sky, to marvel at how Streisand somehow holds a belting note for a full 20 seconds over a swelling orchestra without slipping out of pitch or running out of breath. There are other Streisand-Bergman oldies she could have included, like the sublimely haunting Bergman-Lalo Schifrin ballad On Rainy Afternoons, for instance, but that's what an iPod Playlist is for.

Maybe Streisand's math is correct, perhaps she's holding on to two more new performances to bring her Bergmans tally to 63. If so, she's welcome to release them any time she wishes.

For more follow @HowardCohen on Twitter.

 

 

JLo strikes a Vanity Fair pose

 

Photo: Getty Images/2011

Jennifer Lopez isn't bemoaning the single life. She recently reportedly signed a deal to re-up with American Idol for a second season as a judge. A $20 million pay day makes listening to the offkey Ashthons and Jacobs so much easier, you dig.

In addition, JLo's feeling proud of a new photo shoot she did with Mario Testino for the pages of the new Vanity Fair magazine "Style Issue." She tweeted out a Behind the Cover shoot video link to her 2.4 million Twitter followers set to the frisky beat of J.J. Mumbles' All in Your Smile. 

Take a look:

For more, follow @HowardCohen on Twitter.

Casey Abrams talks touring, health and "inspiration."

 
Talked to Casey Abrams, this season's 6th place Idol finalist, about touring, his health initiative and assorted topics. For one, he says he feels more confident for having said "No!" to mentor/producer Jimmy Iovine when it was suggested that he sing Phil Collins' 1981 pop hit, In the Air Tonight rather than the jazz standard he preferred, Nature Boy. I reminded Casey that Mr. Iovine might know a thing or two about song selection given he has worked with icons like John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Nicks, Patti Smith and Dire Straits. 

"Before Idol I would say 'Yes' to everything. I was afraid of letting people down," Casey said. "When Iovine came along, he forced me to go after my dream instead of what he was asking me to do. He said, 'Hey, do this song,' and I really didn't want to. Everyone was against me. But I stuck to my guns. I want to do what I want to do and had to stick up for myself. That's why I'm doing so well today. I'm becoming a braver person."

We also talked about his work with the Crohn's Foundation and how he has been inspired as people have shared their stories about dealing with Crohn's and bowel disorders. Casey's involved in a contest where fans can win a chance to see him perform in Vegas. You can learn more about the IBD Icons program by clicking on the link within the story. He's also having a blast on the road with fellow Idols. Unlike Scotty, Lauren, Haley and Pia, no album deals just yet but he's optimistic.

Read the feature by clicking here.

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