Voices for the ages

Music nowadays is no longer just sound, it is also visual and I was very glad to recently come across three notable examples that I believe should not be missed.

Pavarotti, A Voice for the Ages, written and produced by John Walker. This is a brand-new documentary about the great, much lamented Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti.  Very well-researched and excellently written, it is filled with candid interviews and footage of some of his best remembered performances. 

Among these are his acclaimed debut and his first recording of Che gelida manina from La Boheme, also some assorted numbers like La donna e mobile from the Johnny Carson Show, duets with pop stars like Sting, Bono and Eric Clapton, songs like Nessun Dorma, La Donna E Mobile and Donna Non Vidi Mai, that aria from the opera Manon Lescaut that he dedicated to Diana, Princess of Wales, during a concert in Hyde Park in London.

That is not all. The DVD also includes Pavarotti: Live in Barcelona. This is the complete concert held at the Gran Teatre del Liceu on June 8, 1989 with Leone Magiera on the piano. Here, indeed, is a voice for the ages presented in a repertoire that runs the gamut from Mozart, Un’aura Amorosa from Co si fan tutte, to Puccini, Recondita armonia from Tosca to Mascagni’s Serenata and standards like Di Capua’s O Sole Mio. I have always marveled at the extraordinary brilliance of Pavarotti’s tones and this recording with its spare piano accompaniment shows his singing at its best.

 Love in Portofino by Andrea Bocelli. Now Bocelli is not yet as great a tenor as Pavarotti but his singing style has a pop quality that I find singularly appealing. If I remember right, this was first heard in the Valentine album Passione a year ago, where singing from a different vocal placement, Bocelli was in his gentlest, most romantic mode ever. There are more of the same in this, his latest release. 

The two-disc set Love in Portofino is made up of cuts culled from Passione like When I Fall In Love with trumpet wiz Chris Botti; Quizas, Quizas, Quizas, a duet with Jennifer Lopez; Love Me Tender; Las Hojas Muertas (Autumn Leaves); Perfidia and others, plus some live tracks taken from the Love in Portofino concert.

While all very nice and worth your money with its 15 tracks, the big reason to buy the album is really the second disc. This is a DVD that features the entire Love In Portofino concert held two years ago. Bocelli performs 10 songs. Among these are Anema E Core, Champagne, Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars), Senza Fine, Love In Portofino and Il Nostro Incontro with Botti. And he is accompanied all throughout the show by a 40-piece orchestra conducted by no less than David Foster. 

Held in a courtyard with breathtaking camerawork, what you get from the video is a gorgeous voice and beautiful music backdropped by scenic Portofino as the sun sets and evening slowly envelops the coastal town. This is an experience that comes as close as possible to being there. 

20 Feet From Stardom produced and directed by Morgan Neville. Pop music was very much in the spotlight at the recent Academy Awards. This was not only because of big names like Idina Menzell, Pharrell Williams, Karen Oh and U2 being around to perform their nominated songs or of guest performers like Pink and Bette Midler. 

It was also because the Oscar Best Supporting Actor  went to the frontman of a rock band, Jared Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars for his work in the Dallas Buyers Club and 20 Feet From Stardom, an insightful look at a mostly unheralded part of the music industry won as Best Documentary Feature.

 The movie is about the back-up singer, those unknown voices you hear in the background of many recordings. They serve to enhance the songs and in some cases also serve to hide the inadequacies of less than competent artists. Most of the time, they are better vocalists than those they provide back-up for. But fate seldom plays fair and they remain all their lives in the background, a very close 20 feet away from stardom.

Neville explores backup singing during the past 60 years in America. He goes from the early days when backup singers were uncredited, underpaid participants in live shows and recording sessions to the dwindling gigs of today, thanks to the availability of multi-track recordings. This means an artist can just layer his voice one on top of another to approximate several voices. And of autotune, that massive working device that can improve or cover up anything.

With focus on great backup singers like Darlene Love, He’s A Rebel, Mable John, who was one of Ray Charles’ Raelettes, Merry Clayton, in Gimme Shelter by the Rolling Stones and interviews with Mick Jagger, Sting, David Bowie and others, the movie tells a sad tale of exploitation made joyous by beautiful voices singing together.