Customer Reviews

I Was Born in Love with You: Jessye Norman Sings Michel Legrand

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I also own "Lucky to be Me" and I actually find this album to be much more acceptable. Ms. Norman's crossover is quite refreshing and believe me, it is a lot better than most of classical singers who tried (except for EILEEN FARRELL, who is the best when it comes to crossover). If you are looking from the point of classical singing, you will definitely be awed at the fantastic flexibility and voice of Ms. Norman; but if you are looking from the point of popular or jazz singing... well, this is not the best album...but I do not think that it was meant to be compared with other popular or jazz album anyway.

The music of Michel Legrand and Jessey Norman's voice : a wonderful combination of quality and craftmanship. I admire those two musicians for many years in their own field, but now together, stunning !

Like most of the reviewers here, this album has given me countless hours of sublime pleasure. It's pure gold. This collaboration embodies a wonderful honesty, authenticity, subtlety, and incandescence...qualities that are very rare nowadays. It's a must have for anyone who appreciates the subtle, sublime and the unpretentious. This album simply could not be better.

The silly comments made by the the first reviewer is an unfortunate testament to the murderous mediocrity of the common palate. The macdonaldization of the collective palate renders most of us incapable of appreciating anything but the expected.

Both Norman and Legrand were simply sublime.

This is no doubt, a great CD by a great diva and a great composer...period. It's jazz singing at its very finest, with the most beautiful nuances and vocalization you'll probably ever hear. Jessye Norman, one of my favorite Sieglinde's, Ariadnes, and Kundry's, sings these songs in such an artistic and captivating way that I would gladly give in and say that this is one of the best CD's I've ever owned. Highly recommended!

I own many of Ms Norman's records, and she has just about the best classically trained voice around, but this record is very up and down. In short... her voice is overly classical for this type of music. M. Michel Legrand est genial... and his music makes this record.

Streisand? (whom I enjoy) Compared to Jessye Norman? Please! Legrand composed this music. It is his! He can interpret it as he pleases. They weren't attempting crossover. They were performing (enjoying) the music. Jessye Norman is magnificent. If you have quality equipment, so that you can hear all of the music, you will love this CD. "Jazz combo" isn't quite accurate to describe these artists. The SACD player "upsampled" this disc and the recording sounds very accurate and very musical. Great music deserving (requiring?) good playback equipment. One of my favorite discs.

Let's face it, it's far easier for us to listen to and for Jessye Norman to sing Wagner, Richard Strauss, Mahler even Purcell then Le Grand. Like many others, I admire her voice, her interpretation, her artistry and whatever else that comes with this personality. But this disc has not given me that thrill that her other discs have given me in the past.

I think her voice still sounds great, Grady Tate and Ron Carter are as good as ever. It's just that this is not really Jessye's repertoire. To have one or two of these songs in a compilation disc would be excellent, but to listen to a whole disc would be an overdose.

Messieur Le Grand is a great pianist, but I'm not sure whether it is intentional to make both the singer and the pianist/song writer get the same coverage, so that the volume of the piano is louder and the part for the piano is more prominent then an average jazz record. At certain point, the piano is clearly in the singer's way. I'd say this is not a particularly successful "cross-over" attempt. Nevertheless, the cover photo is pretty alluring.

I was fairly pleased with this pop excursion by Norman. It was much better than her last Lucky to Be Me disc. In my opinion about half of the the songs are done well, and 15 % of the disc is really wonderful. Norman succeeds when she really scales the voice down, avoids going high, and sings in a restrained almost Julie London style. Her undoing is when she trys to do Streisand or Dion belting . Her voice overwhelms the songs in those instances. Much of the time , though, she does succeed in bringing great beauty and valid sense of style to the music. The ninth cut on the disc is really much more of a classical lieder piece and is sung with gorgeous abandon. It also has the added benefit of some really remarkable baritonal low notes at the end(it sounded like a low D to me, but I could be wrong). If you are a Norman fan , you might really enjoy this disc if you edit out the 4 or 5 numbers which do not work in my opinion. Legrand and company are really wonderful. As an added bonus the two photos of Norman are AMAZING!

Many will view this recording as an attempt by Miss Norman to cross over into jazz literature. Yet, many of the French songs on the album are actually modern day lieder, songs of serious art. Miss Norman treats them with respect and adoration. Her phrasing and interpretation of emotions are impeccable. She may not bend as many notes as a true jazz singer, but she instead chooses to elevate Mr. Legrand's dark beauties on a new plateau of her own understanding. The ensemble work between Mr. Legrand on piano and Miss Norman is worth twice the price of the recording, a study in nuance and partnership. Miss Norman will become a legend in our time, and this recording will be one of her many monuments. Bravo.

By accident I found this cd. It was near christmas and I was looking for presents. I bought this cd as a present for myself. I love the singing of Jessye Norman and Legrand is one of the best piano players in the world. The way they arranged this material is amazing. Subtle and intense.