Customer Reviews

Lyrically Alan Bergman

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Followers of the marvellous songwriting team of Alan and Marilyn Bergman would have been astounded to learn of Alan's surprising vocal debut. For decades they have delighted all people who love classy music and are probably best known for working with Michel Legrand, Johnny Mandel and Dave Grusin.This astonishing debut work is brimming over with immaculate performances and lyrical mastery. As his wife Marilyn says in the sleeve notes "This is with Pride and Prejudice". Each track displays that his timing, pitch and phrasing is quite amazing. If you want to listen to poignant, emotional music, then, in my humble opinion, this is the best album released in 2007. It is difficult to single out individual tracks since all have an individual sensitivity. However, I'll just mention one to wet your appetite. The song "What Matter Most" (a little jewel of a melody originally beautifully sung by Kenny Rankin) gets unbelievable emotion from Alan, and closes the album. On a personal note, if I had to name one song as my favourite over a lifetime of loving and listening to music - this would be it! Bravo Alan

This recording is Bergman's love letter to the life he has lived so fully and so generously.

Rarely is a recording so aptly named. LYRICALLY, ALAN BERGMAN is the signature to his heartfelt expression of the joy, love and privilege he feels as he nears the end. Like other lyricists and composers, notably Johnny Mercer, Herb Alpert and Burt Bacharach, his vocal skills and styling are subservient to the emotion he expresses in the songs.

Bergman, an octogenarian, brings us his smile, his laughter and his gratitude in a way that makes tune and tone less important than his emotion. Each piece fits, like a finely sawed puzzle part, into the magnificent portrait at which he has been working for the past sixty years. The orchestrations are wonderfully understated. The production work is subtly superb. Everything works together to present a giant of lyricism at his most humble and beautiful.

Will there be a finer recording produced this year? Hard to know. Will this one stand out as one of the great self-interpretations in modern music history? Most definitely.

A gem - listen to it, love it, share it as Bergman has done all of his life.

Pour a glass of wine, have a seat, sit back, and listen to some beautiful music and lyrics, sung beautifully by Mr. Bergman. He sounds a little like Jack Jones here, a little like Bacharach there. The music that Alan Bergman and his wife Marilyn have gifted us with over the years has just been so memorable and lovely and heartfelt. What a treat to have the composer very ably show those singers who have brought us their music how they intended it to be sung when words and music were put to paper.

This set of songs creates a mood of love, of the passing of love, of how time slips past and before you know it, what is, was. It is also a tribute to two of the best American lyricists, Alan Bergman and his wife Marilyn, who over the years have teamed with noted composers to create these classic songs.

Past reviews have critiqued Alan Bergman's singing capabilities. I hear much beauty in his renditions. First, as a lyricist, he makes sure that you understand every word he sings. Other singers focus on themselves, their technical virtuosity, sometimes to the detriment of the song itself: Bergman enhances the songs. Then, as a man in his eighties, he brings a lifetime of understanding and feeling to each of these songs.

He may miss a note here and there. He never misses the songs. They glow in his renditions.

Too special for words! If you love the songs, you must have this CD--it's magically--lovely orchestration, sensitive renditions, well-crafted
CD--

This is a great CD. Bergman clearly doesn't have an exceptional voice, but he sings these tunes with such feeling and understanding that it more than makes up for that shortcoming. A great selection of songs that are really a pleasure to listen to.

Lovely album with lyrisist crooning his tunes - written in collaboration with his wife and lifelong companion - with a German symphonic orchestra. The clarity and empathy in the words more than offsets the infrequent flat notes (he is no Tony Bennet). Recommended and we enjoyed it in our household.

Well it was to me, you'll have to see if it is irresistable to you. I love huge arrangements, strings, sophisticated lyrics, songwriters performing their own work, ancient singers pulling every trick in the book to keep a song afloat. Sound good? Yeah, yum! This will join LADY IN SATIN by Billie Holiday and Chet Baker's soundtrack to LET"S GET LOST in frequent rotation on my music system. Can Alan sing these songs as well as Sarah Vaughan or Barbra Streisand? Of course not- he's a song WRITER not a singer! He certainly doesn't embarrass himself. The orchestra is GREAT and his obvious advanced age lends a beautiful sheen of sophisticated, romantic melancholy. This is the best album for adults I have heard in years. Not for juveniles.

I stumbled upon this CD while perusing the halls of Amazon.com.
I have long been a fan of the music of Alan and Marilyn Bergman, having heard their beautiful songs from Barbra Streisand, Leslie Uggums and many other singers over the years. I had no idea that Alan Bergman had recorded an album of their own work, however, until just recently. I ordered it without even listening to the clips, based on my love of their music and the reviews here. I am so glad I did! No one would consider Alan Bergman the best singer they've ever heard, however, there's something about his voice! He sings well, no doubt about that, but there are other qualities in his voice that make this a very listenable CD, not to mention the obvious love he has for his own lyric. These songs are mostly classic standards that you have probably heard from other performers. Give this CD a try. I think you will not be sorry, and like me, will find yourself listening to it over and over again. It's a gentle assortment of beautiful grown-up songs...for grown-up people.

How wonderful to know that one of America's all time great lyricists is a great singer as well. Alan's vocals are sincere, honest and vulnerable, as if he is in the room speaking directly to you. The arrangements completely support his vocal approach and the selection of songs will take you on a jouney of memories of your own. Every song is familiar and to hear them from the writer himself is a treat! A great gift for anyone who loves movies and music!
Linda Addington