This Is New
This 12-song homage to German composer Kurt Weill exceeds even the excellence of Bridgewater's classic vocal tributes toHorace SilverandElla Fitzgerald. The main reason is that Weill wrote for theater, and beyond being a singer, Bridgewater is a Tony Award-winning actress, an announcer, and a noted humorist, all talents used to great effect here. Weill's best-known tragicomic character, Macheath, or "Mack the Knife," appears on the hidden track here, but Bridgewater also introduces others in "The Saga of Jenny" and "Bilbao Song." Only an accomplished stage actress, who also happens to be a great jazz singer, could suspend disbelief as she does in these absolutely enthralling tales of violence, sex, and greed. Many of Weill's songs are jazz standards, and Bridgewater puts definitive stamps on three of them--"Speak Low," an organ powered "This Is New," and an exquisite ballad reading of "My Ship." Bridgewater also broadens her sonic palette, as, for the first time for her, the guitar is prominent in many of the superb arrangements she uses. Sprinkled in also is a bit of world music, particularly Brazilian samba.--Mark Ruffin