Inkless Wells

Paul Wells on all the latest out of Ottawa—along with the occasional post about jazz. Follow Paul on Twitter: @InklessPW

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Barbra Streisand at the Village Vanguard

by Paul Wells on Monday, September 28, 2009 1:18pm - 7 Comments

Only 125 seats, but for five tunes, you can have a front-row perch here. Of course there are no bad seats. I’ve been to the Vanguard four times in 25 years, to hear Joe Henderson, Branford Marsalis, Bill Charlap and Eric Reed. Once after I hadn’t been there for a long time, I fretted unduly about getting a good seat, fretted again that the ones we were stuck with were awful, and then realized I was sitting about 16 feet from the pianist with an unobstructed view. It really is an extraordinary room, and one of the things I like best about these Barbra Streisand clips is that it still sounds like the Vanguard. She still sounds like Streisand, which means she’s an excellent singer, in no way a jazz singer, incapable of understatement, clearly everything the crowd came to hear.

Tags: Barbra Streisand

More by Paul Wells

http://intensedebate.com/people/SisyphusThis SisyphusThis

I especially envy you the Joe Henderson.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Inkless Inkless

It was the weekend they recorded State of the Tenor: Live at the Village Vanguard for Blue Note. That's me clapping after All The Things You Are.

http://intensedebate.com/people/SisyphusThis SisyphusThis

I recognized that … the thumb position and distinctive cupping of the palms. Nice.

John Geddes

That was with Ron Carter on bass, right? I saw JH at the Vanguard a couple years later when he had Charlie Haden. Oh, man.

dede

Re, that earlier post I saw Elvin Jones there, sometime in the early eighties.
Snorri

Went to the Vanguard this year for the first time to see Lou Donaldson. It was a mesmerizing, mind-blowing experience. Great room.
Cynthia

it's touted as her going "back to her roots", but it's only to one side of her roots. Her first albums were full of unmeasured wacky performances, and uncontained passion. I guess her age (she was 20 in '63 when first album came out) wouldn't suit some of that old style. But as someone who, as a kid, hung on her every note when friends my own age were listening to Bruce Springsteen), I haven't been able to bear the last at least 15 years of her recordings, being that they were so stylized and overproduced. All tracks sound the same. Sadly, although this recording is better (at least it's not David Fosterish) , the tempo and dynamics of each new track struck me as too similar to the track before to get me excited. Oh well, every now and again I still listen to those old albums and they still excite me. She really was something. (Just as sad, I think I feel the same way about Michael Ignatieff. )