Search - Alan Bergman :: Lyrically Alan Bergman

WHAT AN UNEXPECTED SURPRISE

Mr. B. Pugh | Kent, England | 06/22/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Followers of the marvellous songwriting team of Alan and Marilyn Bergman would have been astounded to learn of Alan's surprising vocal debut. For decades they have delighted all people who love classy music and are probably best known for working with Michel Legrand, Johnny Mandel and Dave Grusin.This astonishing debut work is brimming over with immaculate performances and lyrical mastery. As his wife Marilyn says in the sleeve notes "This is with Pride and Prejudice". Each track displays that his timing, pitch and phrasing is quite amazing. If you want to listen to poignant, emotional music, then, in my humble opinion, this is the best album released in 2007. It is difficult to single out individual tracks since all have an individual sensitivity. However, I'll just mention one to wet your appetite. The song "What Matter Most" (a little jewel of a melody originally beautifully sung by Kenny Rankin) gets unbelievable emotion from Alan, and closes the album. On a personal note, if I had to name one song as my favourite over a lifetime of loving and listening to music - this would be it! Bravo Alan"

Lyrically, Ours

Daniel E. Molloy | Connecticut | 07/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This recording is Bergman's love letter to the life he has lived so fully and so generously.



Rarely is a recording so aptly named. LYRICALLY, ALAN BERGMAN is the signature to his heartfelt expression of the joy, love and privilege he feels as he nears the end. Like other lyricists and composers, notably Johnny Mercer, Herb Alpert and Burt Bacharach, his vocal skills and styling are subservient to the emotion he expresses in the songs.



Bergman, an octogenarian, brings us his smile, his laughter and his gratitude in a way that makes tune and tone less important than his emotion. Each piece fits, like a finely sawed puzzle part, into the magnificent portrait at which he has been working for the past sixty years. The orchestrations are wonderfully understated. The production work is subtly superb. Everything works together to present a giant of lyricism at his most humble and beautiful.



Will there be a finer recording produced this year? Hard to know. Will this one stand out as one of the great self-interpretations in modern music history? Most definitely.



A gem - listen to it, love it, share it as Bergman has done all of his life.

"

Pretty....Romantic....Mellow

Renee | BROOKLYN, NY USA | 07/14/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Pour a glass of wine, have a seat, sit back, and listen to some beautiful music and lyrics, sung beautifully by Mr. Bergman. He sounds a little like Jack Jones here, a little like Bacharach there. The music that Alan Bergman and his wife Marilyn have gifted us with over the years has just been so memorable and lovely and heartfelt. What a treat to have the composer very ably show those singers who have brought us their music how they intended it to be sung when words and music were put to paper."