Here are some singers of note whose first names happen to start with the letter “M” as in “Music.” Ladies first: Melissa Errico and Meltem Ege, then three gentlemen: two West Coasters named Mark (Winkler and Miller) and New Yorker Marcus Goldhaber. Each has his or her own special qualities in these five albums, with a couple of songs appearing on two of the releases: “Skylark” and “I’ll See You in My Dreams.”
MELISSA ERRICO
WITH TEDD FIRTH
I CAN DREAM, CAN’T I?
ILLUSIONS AND CONVERSATIONS FROM THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK
Three Graces Music
CD | Digital
With a serious and cerebral approach to love songs, mining the full potential of words and music, singer/actress Melissa Errico and pianist Tedd Firth present a thinking person’s panoply of mostly mid-20th century classics in I Can Dream, Can’t I?. Moods are established immediately–sometimes with this masterful keyboardist setting the tone on his own for a minute or more before the vocal comes in. With attention to detail, the singer’s ultra-pensive phrasing is full of in-the-moment explorations of the statements and questions in lyrics that feel like sighing realizations and reality checks putting hope and hurt in perspective. With the underpinning of the pianist’s sensitive playing, she presents a person theorizing and realizing, analyzing feelings, processing pain, and getting philosophical. The considerations and conclusions may be addressed to a lover, possibly in absentia–or, in the case of Dave Frishberg’s “Listen Here,” to oneself. So, the album’s subtitle, Illusions and Conversations from the Great American Songbook, is definitely apt.
On the same page with their agenda, the pair seem to leave no emotional stone unturned as they methodically go through the repertoire and delve into the love-drenched atmospheres. Two lilting but lonely laments feel like “cousins” in song because of their shared mature point of view and their specific titular reference to spring bringing better times. These pieces reinforcing the need for patience are “Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year” by Frank Loesser and “There’ll Be Another Spring” by Peggy Lee. Contrastingly, quiet despair is in the air with Cole Porter’s “After You, Who?.” Unrequited and/or unspoken love come under the microscope, resulting in wistfulness with more than a hint of wryness in two selections with Jerome Kern melodies: “Remind Me” and “All in Fun,” with lyrics by, respectively, Dorothy Fields and Oscar Hammerstein.
Poignancy prevails. Tempi is often slow, allowing time to parse words with pauses, as well as to emphasize–and linger over–individual words and phrases so that they really sink in and the composers’ artful melodic choices are embraced. Employed so often, a low-speed pace could be deadly with diminishing returns in other hands, but a listener doesn’t lose the thread of any love story here, as the well-crafted lyrics can take the weight and the waits, and Mr. Firth sustains the tension in his focused accompaniment, eschewing unnecessary embellishments. And certainly Miss Errico’s committed, involved acting and truly lovely timbre keep things engaging. So, be prepared to be pulled in with these empathetic interpretations.
Oddly, the program’s choice as a first track is the outlier–not heavy or sober at all, but rather the playful and winking Cy Coleman/ Carolyn Leigh number “When in Rome (I Do as the Romans Do”), freely admitting a willingness to philander and flirt with others. For those who play an album in track order, its sauciness makes for a misleading first impression when what lies ahead is so much drama that treats love as sacred and anything but disposable.
Melissa Errico appears in Manhattan at 54 Below this week with her program of songs connected to Barbra Streisand. (Billy Stritch is her musical partner for that.) Meanwhile, Tedd Firth seems to be everywhere.