Customer Reviews

We'll Be Together Again

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"We'll Be Together Again" was one of the last records made by the great singer Lena Horne: it was originally released by Blue Note in 1994. The diva, who was born in Brooklyn in 1917, had had an extremely long career, as a pop/jazz/Broadway/cabaret diva, that ran from 1938, when she was discovered singing and dancing at the famous Cotton Club in Harlem, to 2000. She'd been famous since 1943, on the after stream of her worldwide hit "Stormy Weather," from the movie of the same name (Stormy Weather) that was made at 20th Century Fox, while she was a young beauty on loan from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. (Although it must be said, at that time and place, her career was greatly limited by her color.)

Horne, who was blacklisted in the 1950's for her political beliefs, has won many awards in her long career. Several Grammies, including a Lifetime Achievement Award; an NAACP Image Award for her civil rights work, and a Kennedy Center Award. She has headlined at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles, Carnegie Hall in New York, and the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria in New York - her 1957 live album, "Lena Horne at the Waldorf-Astoria" was the largest selling record by a female artist in RCA history. She has made many, many television appearances. But, as she is now well into her nineties, she no longer appears in public.

Horne recorded the record at hand following her 1993 performance at a tribute to the musical legacy of Strayhorn. To coincide with its 1994 release, she made her last two public appearances, at Carnegie Hall, and the New York Supper Club. But its genesis was much earlier, to quote from the liner notes of David Hajdu:

"It's a prayer: "We'll Be Together Again"--a private, sacred promise to a lost love. And it's fitting: the last time they [Horne, Strayhorn, and Ellington] were together on stage, December 26, 1965, Lena Horne and Billy Strayhorn were praying in song. Duke Ellington, presiding grandly over lavish proceedings at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York, hushed down the assemblage of 14 musicians, 8 singers and one tap dancer. `And now there will be a change in programming,' Ellington said, announcing, with no further explanation, `Billy Strayhorn and his pretty little friend.' A spotlight popped on, and there, snuggled together on a piano bench, the pianist and his friend made music for 1,800 churchgoers exactly as they'd been doing for some 25 years, alone all night at one or the other's home."

Horne married elsewhere twice, but often told interviewers that Strayhorn was her closest friend, her "soulmate," and the love of her life, and she had wanted to marry him. However, Strayhorn was basically homosexual, and, the 1940's being what they were, he was said to be tormented about it. His relationship with Ellington, otherwise an enthusiastic heterosexual, is ambiguous; as were the relationships among the three musicians. Be that as it may, Strayhorn's musical gifts were tremendous. In addition to playing piano and arranging, he was a composer of note, and is represented on this record by "Maybe," "Something to Live For," "Love Like This Can't Last," "A Flower is a Lovesome Thing," and "You're the One." Oddly enough, his perhaps most famous songs, "Chelsea Bridge," "Take the A Train," "Satin Doll," and perhaps also his most beautiful, "Lush Life," are not presented here. (Incidentally, I understand you never will find a Strayhorn song available on karaoke, as he wrote only for trained voices.)

What is here is packed with emotion, sung by a great singer at the end of her performing career. There can be no better way to remember these performers.

Several of us pooled resources and bought many of her recordings and now share them. Some are better than others - but only because of her speaking parts on some of the CDs. All musical selections remain terrific. She lived to be 92 - and in all those years she provided so many of us with toe tapping excellence in her choices of music.

You feel the fun and enjoyment she exudes in the music. How lucky for those of us that lived in the era of Lena Horne and who now have access to recordings in her history, past and present. Most of the current recordings have been reissued to remove static, etc. When you purchase these recordings, you're promised hours of listenable entertainment by the Mistress of Song.

This CD is well worth listening to and owning. Following Lena Horne's passing last week, I came to listen to a specific song here- hoping to download it. Unfortunately, I was not able to do so as for whatever reasons cause Amazon to turn 'on' or 'off' the "Listen to Samples" feature- there was no way to listen in. Call it an unfortunate calamity that forced me to purchase the whole CD. Thank you, Amazon, I'm glad I did. This is a wonderful collection of songs with great meaning for Lena and therefore the audience- as she has a way of bringing you 'inside' the song- feeling it along with her. To quote the liner notes- this was "A defiantly ambitious work by a major artist at her mature peak.... "an intricate exploration of the themes of love, parting and memory in the form of intimate messages to musicians and others Horne has lost- including Ellington, her late husband Lennie Hayton and most of all, her closest friend and 'soulmate', Billy Strayhorn." Particularly poignant now with her passing is the meaning these songs will hold for those who will dearly miss her- numbers such as "We'll Be Together Again", "My Buddy", "Forever Was a Day"- one could imagine her singing these to hear loved ones as an 'intimate message'. I have to disagree with an earlier reviewer- Lena is at her fullest here- and I do not say that in reverence to her passing- but in total appreciation of these performances. She is not a shadow of her former self- she is still vibrant. Don't be thrown off. Well, now it's time, Amazon, to 'turn back on' the "listen to samples' feature- people will want to buy this and it's time to let Lena sing on this one, here.

Those familiar with the tenacious and fiery Lena Horne, who could on occasion sound threatening, dangerous and explosive--on the edge of what comforts an audience in sensing that the artist is in control--will no doubt find this offering underwhelming. This is as reflective a Lena as you're likely to find (though the Mathis duet and up-tempo "Do Nothin'" provide some buoyant moments), and the voice of the performer is less powerful and secure, the enunciation slightly faltering. But to the attentive it's no less passionate. Lena takes on several of the Strayhorn "art songs"--"A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing" (David Hadju's illuminating liner notes disclose that it took her two years to learn it), the deceptively meandering "Someone to Live For"--tunes that the listener is none the poorer for making the acquaintance of despite being unable to hum them back.

There are some lighter moments, none that are heavy, many that glow with the reanimation of memory revisited and relived.

If there's a disappointment, it's the absence of the rarely sung Strayhorn masterpiece "Chelsea Bridge," which Lena had sung 20 years previously with Robert Farnon's orchestral arrangement. But it's an intimate tone poem, the musical equivalent of Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey," the poem in the 1798 Wordsworth-Coleridge collection ("Lyrical Ballads") that proved revolutionary in its transformation of English poetry (and thought), best realizing the poet's intent of capturing moments that represent "the spontaneous overflow of powerful moments recollected in tranquillity."

Perhaps understandably, the song was omitted (it would have been a major challenge to recreate if the performer had not sung it in 20 years), but its spirit breathes throughout this glistening if autumnal collection.

["Chelsea Bridge" has been reissued in the very last collection overseen by Horne--"The Seasons of Life" (2006)--which would be an ideal complement to the present recording.]

A little interjection: On cut two of this album, ''Day Follows Day,'' Johnny Mathis joins Lena for a tasty duet. When I heard this on Toronto's jazz station, Jazz 91.FM, the female program host said, ''Well, things got exciting when Johnny came in!'' and indeed, he does 'kick it up a notch!' He's only on that one cut, but Mathis collectors might want to scoop this up.

cheerleading moves... Lena's the best