Search - Barbara Cook :: Sings From The Heart

Gotta disagree with Miss Cook: Nothing's missing here

Alan | New York, NY | 05/05/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Here's Barbara Cook, fairly early in her career, singing Rodgers and Hart songs with a vulnerability and a care for the lyrics that even she has perhaps never surpassed. I'm in the minority in finding Hart's lyrics problematic sometimes, but Cook finds so much meaning in them that these songs seem like perfect if small works of art.



The accompaniments are scored for strings, piano, guitar, and percussion. It sounds a little odd at first, but they're done nicely, and the arrangements do support Cook's performances effectively.



Having said that, some may find the ballads unrelieved by any faster songs to be a bit lacking in variety. Still, even if you want to take an occasional break between tracks, this is not only very musical singing but also extremely communicative singing that I think will be appreciated by almost everyone who loves the Great American Songbook.



In the liner notes of this reissue, Miss Cook writes, ""During the time when we recorded this album I was concerned with singing very purely. I believe I delve into the text of a song more deeply now that I did in 1959, but I feel there is a sweetness and almost naivete to this work that I hope makes up for whatever else might be missing." Sorry to disagree, Miss Cook, but I don't think anything is missing here. You're great now, but you were also great back then."