There is no one quite like Karen Akers.
Strange and very beautiful, with a basketball player's lanky figure and a sexy cello of a voice, she brings unique gifts to song lovers. Tuesday night's opening of her new show at the Plush Room, sung to an adoring crowd, was terrific.
It was also very simple. Akers stepped out in a long black dress, her hair in the familiar bangs and bob she has worn since her Broadway debut in ``Nine'' nearly two decades ago, her languid presence if anything a little less reserved. Backed only by Don Rebic at the piano, she sang in English, French and even Flemish, all the while making the familiar sound fresh, the minor appear promising and the new always exciting.
``Haunted Heart'' is the title of Akers' new show, from a 1940s Jo Stafford hit that was recently featured prominently in the motion picture ``The End of the Affair.'' If a certain sameness of mood occasionally threatened to flatten the show, with the string of songs forming a rosary of little prayers on a single haunting theme, the singer's sheer commitment to the material made one sit up and listen. Akers has a knack for making songs her own even as she shares them with a generosity that has few rivals.
Not every song was a gem, mind you. And some of the new material worked only thanks to the singer. But there were unexpected treasures in improbable places. Reflecting on her own divided loyalties as an American living in Europe, Akers eased into an utterly lovely version of the old Josephine Baker standard ``J'ai deux amours -- mon pays et Paris,'' only to turn it into a prologue for the traditional ``Shenandoah'' and a touching confession of longing for her homeland's open spaces.
Her way with two Jacques Brel songs alone would be worth a trip to the Plush Room. ``I'm Not Afraid,'' in a far superior translation than the familiar version from ``Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris,'' made one long for a whole evening devoted to the late Belgian songmaker. And his ``Marieke'' was devastating in Akers' rendition, an urbane and melancholy vision of a home lost forever in time.
She breathed new life into songs from ``The Baker's Wife'' and ``Dance a Little Closer.'' Elsewhere, whether paying tribute to Stafford or, more to the point, to Edith Piaf, the miracle of Akers' singing was in making one hear even the hard-earned optimism of ``Non, je ne regrette rien'' as if for the first time.
So many great singers fall in the trap of paying tribute through pale imitation: Think of Piaf songs reproduced by Elaine Paige, Milva or Mireille Matthieu. Akers has a better way. For Tuesday's third encore, she spoke the English words of ``La vie en rose'' before launching into the song. Akers sounded nothing like her French idol, yet she made one both marvel at the memory of the old singer and rejoice in the spectacle of a living, thrilling song. She was gorgeous. ..
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar