Customer Reviews

Where Is Love?

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

 

 

This was sort of a comeback album for Irene in the mid-70s after being away from recording for quite some time. It's probably an understatement to say that these are the most exquisite and heartfelt performances ever put on record by a jazz or pop vocalist. It's a tour of the human soul, as laid out by these eleven perfect songs, delivered in Irene's down to earth, honey-smooth vocals, beautifully supported by Alan Broadbent's tasteful and understated accompaniment. This overdue reissue is the ultimate example of the human voice as the most beautiful instrument in existence, and as Carmen McRae so clearly put it in the liner notes, a must-have for anyone who loves beauty. Irene, you are sorely missed.

After more than 40 years of listening to popular music, this album still makes my top 10 list. It's a mix of stunningly simple vocals and great song picks, and unlike some of Kral's other works, it doesn't sound the least bit dated. A collection of fabulously nuanced performances, the kind of thing you can listen to many times and find something new behind the voice. Clean, gorgeous, romantic and just FINE! A great CD to give listen to on a rainy day with your lover ... or all alone.

If you want to hear some of the most splendid singing ever, with magnificent accompaniment, rush to buy this CD. Kral is one of the very best American singers of all time. Sensitive, funny, and hip as hell, she has everything.

Like very, very few albums, Kind of Blue among them, Where is Love? exists on a separate plane. It is so devoid of sentimentality and filled with purity of tone and authentic emotion that it's difficult to imagine it not enduring as long as music is listened to, and at the same time difficult to listen to without tears welling up in your eyes. I was introduced to Irene Kral years ago, when a great friend and a world-class jazz fan played a vinyl copy of Love Came on Stealthy Fingers from this album. Nearly 15 years later, I still remember the impression it made on my heart, not to mention a story this friend told about his pianist father and Irene setting up for a gig in Florida, and the manager pissing off Irene with a condescending song request that unleashed a string of curses from her (and ended the gig before it had begun). Alan Broadbent gets less attention in discussions of this album, perhaps because he didn't die so tragically young, but he is as much a part of this recording as Bill Evans is a pillar of Kind of Blue. One of the most delicious things about this recording, though it's unfair to be elitist, is that so few people even know Irene or this album. That and Irene's impending death at the time of its conception put it in a place of its own as one of music's perfect achievements.

"This is meant to be heard only during that quiet time of the day, preferably with someone you love, when you can sink into your favorite chair, close your eyes, and let in no outside thoughts to detract." So says Irene Kral in the liner notes to this 1975 jewel. After a decade away from recording, and fighting advancing breast cancer, the veteran band singer clearly knew what she wanted to achieve with this recording, and the result is a seemless synthesis of singer, song choice, arrangement and accompaniment - moving, introspective, and as smooth as honey - that propelled Kral back into the upper ranks of American vocalists. She would lose her cancer battle only three years later, at the age of 46, having released two more acclaimed, Grammy-nominated albums ("Kral Space" and "The Gentle Rain"). As great as those final recordings are, "Where Is Love?", arguably Irene Kral's supreme achievement, is absolutely not to be missed.

I first bought this recording as an LP shortly after its release. I had never heard of either Irene Kral or Alan Broadbent. This was about 30 years ago, when I was a kid with a strong passion for jazz vocalists, and in between buying up everything recorded by Ella, Billie, Sarah, Carmen, and Dinah, I noticed this "new" recording in the bin, and took a chance.

I wore out two copies on LP before the belated CD release finally arrived. I don't know a lot about Ms. Kral, except that, even several decades after her premature death, she is held in the highest esteem by great musicians all over the world. Her enchanting voice, her deeply evocative phrasing, and her true commitment to the music is evident in every note of every song on this album.

While there have been hundreds of truly great pianists in the jazz and vocal world, very few of these folks understand the art of accompaniment.
The singer and pianist become one. There have been a few occasions where this magic was undeniable. Tony Bennett and Bill Evans, Doris Day and Andre Previn, Barbara Cook and Wally Harper, but none can compare to the magic fusion of Irene Kral and Alan Broadbent.

They made another album together entitled GENTLE RAIN, right before Ms. Kral's death. Another triumph.

This is truly a recording that only gets better every time you hear it. I can't help but to enjoy over and over again...because I always hear something new. Brilliant!

While living in NY in the 1980's I was blessed to work with some terrific musicians on some music for television and even in some folk clubs in the village. While working on some jingles, a pianist friend of mine loaned me a copy of Where is Love by Irene Kral and Alan Broadbent. I fell in love with that record and played it every day for months. It became my religion, and my meditation.
Irene Kral was one of the finest vocalist's I have ever had the pleasure to hear. She has taught me more about singing, and made me a better singer than years of conservatory could have - I truly believe that. I couldn't get enough of her style and phrasing and warmth. And there is simply not enough room here to express my love for Alan Broadbent's playing. Pas de Duex - that's how they worked.
This is a flawless record, simply flawless. I wish I could have heard her live. And that is the blessings of recorded music. The intimacy and love she sings with will fill your heart and make you a believer too.

Peace and Music,
Megon McDonough

I remember it so clearly: I'm standing in front of The White House in Laguna Beach, California, where Irene had been scheduled to perform, learning through a posted notice that she had lost her battle with cancer. I just stood there and wept. I had seen her many times in her final years, so I knew what we had lost with her passing. Words cannot describe the sublime effect of Irene's voice and Alan's piano heard live, in a small room, among rapt and devoted fans and friends. A few years later, I went to the funeral for another musical legend, Tommy Wolf, the composer of "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most." I heard someone say that Tommy had been called to heaven to write more ballads for Irene. What a fitting tribute for such an angelic voice.

It's settled then. If after listening to Irene Kral, you don't go ahead and buy everything she ever made then you are profoundly deaf, brain dead, or at very least, in a coma. Best ever! That this gifted woman is not on the planet anymore is a great shame..but at very least her voice is, and her daughter has so much to be proud of, apart from her own talent as an artist. Bless you, Irene.

A beautiful CD I play it every night I work for the little one's in the neonatal care unit. The music is soft and mellow and very relaxing. Just her voice and accompanyment by the piano. A great way to create a calm enviroment.