|
The Men I Love: The New American Songbook
Barb Jungr: The Men I Love: The New American Songbook
The Times on Sunday UK ****
It is a sign of how the Rochdale-born singer’s reputation has travelled across the Atlantic that she returns to Woody Allen’s Upper East Side haunt, Café Carlyle, later this week. Walking a fine line between cabaret, jazz and grown-up pop, Jungr has always had an eye for an unlikely tune. This pensive collection hits its stride from the outset, with a brave reworking of Once in a Lifetime — it’s as if David Byrne had fallen into the hands of a Sondheim heroine. The Todd Rundgren anthem I Saw the Light benefits just as much from Jungr’s sharp intelligence, the pianist Simon Wallace sculpting another of his subtle small-group arrangements. Clive Davis
Barb Jungr: The Men I Love: The New American Songbook
BBC Review - John Eyles - 2010-02-22
Jungr needs no added ingredients to improve her communication of these great songs. Click here to read the full review »
Barb Jungr: The Men I Love: The New American Songbook
CD Review: Midwest Record
Game changer time as cabaret enters a new age. A sensual vocalist in
the best of the tradition, Jungr replaces Cole Porter with Jimmy Webb
and kicks off the new classic American songbook. David Byrne side by
side with Leonard Cohen and Neil Diamond and several stalwarts that
certainly deserve the recognition. One of the familiar but different
kind of records in the vein of Nouvelle Vague, Jungr is clearly that
important kind of uptown vocalist you have to pay attention to as
she’s got the touch to turn anything into art, in a good way. A new
high water mark for sitting down music.
Volume 33/Number 113
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
Barb Jungr The Men I Love: The New American Songbook
CD Review: This Is Books Music February 18, 2010
The Men I Love: The New American Songbook is an album that takes a unique look at American music of the last 50 years, exploring rock’n'roll, pop, and soul that presents these songs in an all new way. Even if you’ve heard them countless times (and you have), you’ll come out of this thinking that these are the best songs ever written. Maybe they’re a part of your life’s soundtrack and didn’t realize what they were or why they’re important, at least to you. Click here to read the full review »
Barb Jungr: The Men I Love: The New American Songbook
BBC Jazz - John Eyles
Before recording this album, Barb Jungr and her pianist Simon Wallace toured extensively with the stage version, The Men I Love. The show received rave reviews across the UK and in New York for Jungr’s daring interpretations of its songs, and for the drama and emotion her voice conjures up.
From Ella Fitzgerald in the 50s to Rod Stewart in the past decade, albums with “songbook” in the title have tended to feature classic songs by notable songwriters like Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael, Cole Porter and their ilk. Now, this album has broken that mould and radically redefined the term.
The Men I Love: The New American Songbook focuses on songs written since the 60s, including some by stars like Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen. Alongside these are an adventurous mixture that takes in Motown, The Monkees, Bread, Talking Heads and Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon.
Jungr’s powers of interpretation make such an eclectic selection into a vital, coherent album. She sounds as if she has lived every line of every song. These are not just cover versions. Instead, Jungr and Wallace have taken the songs apart to find out how they work, before remodeling them.
Often the results are unrecognizable compared to the originals. The opener, Once in a Lifetime, bears no trace of Talking Heads’ funk workout, replaced by a sparse, dramatic and almost confessional reading that hinges on the line “my God, what have I done?” delivered with an appropriate sense of revelation.
Key to some of these versions is the combination of two songs on a related subject. Can’t Get Used to Losing You moves seamlessly into Red Red Wine, while This Old Heart of Mine becomes Love Hurts - the pain of lost love is a recurring theme throughout the album.
These recordings build on the piano and voice duo of the live show. The subtle addition of bass, cello, flute and percussion adds shading, complementing Jungr and Wallace without detracting from them. Jungr needs no added ingredients to improve her communication of the intense feelings contained in these great songs.
Barb Jungr and the ‘Lost’ Generation
The Art Of The Torch Singer - Blog
Click here to read the feature and review »
Cabaret Confessional
Interview: ‘Less Is More’ – Barb Jungr Lets The Songs Breathe
Click here to read the feature and review »
Just Like A Woman (Hymn to Nina)
Barb Jungr - Just Like a Woman (hymn to Nina)
Blues Matters Nov 08
Everyone will agree that Nina Simone had one of the most distinguishable voices in recording history. It takes a certain credibility to take on an album of Nina Simone songs, and she carries it off. Barb Jungr is not doing an imitation of Nina Simone, the songs are sung in her own style, but her breathy smooth approach is equally effortless. She is backed by fine musicians who keep to the background, yet are clearly immensely talented. Her different noirish takes on ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’ and ‘Keeper of the Flame’ grab the attention as does her lonely lament combining ‘One Morning In May’ with ‘The Pusher’. Barb Jungr addresses complex tunes, makes them simple and smooth with a whisper and control that is a perfect compliment to her wish to engage the spirit of Nina Simone. (Gareth Hayes)
**** Barb Jungr – Just Like A Woman (Hymn to Nina) The Independent Review 14.3.2008
Having established her reputation through unusual interpretations of songwriters such as Jacques Brel and Bob Dylan, the vocal stylist Barb Jungr turns her attentions to Nina Simone. Ticking clock and groaning bass lend an air of lovelorn fatalism to the splendid ‘Lilac Wine’, and a grimly descending chord structure imposes a similarly bereft tone to her despairing ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’; but the most startling pieces here are the medleys in which Jungr infuses contemporary material with the darkling mystery of traditional folksong, most notably the alliance of ‘One Morning In May’ with the old Steppenwolf drug song ‘The Pusher’. Apart from a ‘Ballad of Hollis Brown’. Jungr’s Dylan interpretations are less convincing than might be expected, particularly the odd, jaunty ‘Times They Are A -Changin’’, but the up-tempo blues arrangement of ‘Feeling Good’ that closes the album is a vivid display of her subject’s balance of control and abandonment.
**** Barb Jungr: Just Like a Woman (Hymn to Nina) - the Sunday Times review (9.03.08)
After deconstructing Elvis, Dylan and Jacques Brel, the British singer pays homage to Nina Simone. Jungr being Jungr, nothing follows a conventional path in this oblique collection, which veers between gospel, folk, R&B and discreet jazz. She doesn’t go for obvious covers or try to compete with Simone’s idiosyncratic delivery – her voice is lighter and almost girlish. The real pleasure lies in the typically thoughtful juxtapositions of material. The bleak sentiments of The Pusher sit side by side with the pastoral cadences of One Morning in May, while Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood is unashamedly dark. Fans will be pleased that the Dylan quota remains high. (Clive Davis) Linn AKD309
**** Barb Jungr 'Just like a woman - hymn to Nina (The Independent) March 7, 2008
A vocal stylist acclaimed for her interpretations of Jacques Brel and Bob Dylan, Barb Jungr here turns her attention to Nina Simone, with an album drawn from the late pianist's repertoire. The most striking pieces may be the medleys with which Jungr brings a trad-folk tone to particularly the seamless seguing of 'One Morning in May' with the old Steppenwolf drug song 'The Pusher'....her 'Ballad of Hollis Brown', with the delicate madness of the piano part evoking the protagonist's descent into despair, is much more effective. It's all brought to a close with a rousing, exultant blues arrangement of 'Feeling Good' that pays true homage to Nina's feisty spirit. (Andy Gill)
Album of the Week - Barb Jungr ‘Just Like A Woman (Hymn to Nina)’, The Independent, 22.3.2008
Barb Jungr sold out a week of gigs at Ronnie Scott’s to launch this album of songs associated with Nina Simone. Her previous albums have made her the foremost interpreter of Bob Dylan’s back catalogue around, and there’s a trio of Zimmerman classics here, alongside ‘Llilac Wine’ and a wonderful, breathy ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’. Classy doesn’t begin to sum it up.
(Tim Cumming)
Barb Jungr ‘Just Like A Woman (Hymn to Nina)’, Bluesart.at APRIL 2008
Barb Jungr is a UK based singer of Czech and German parentage who is renowned in the UK for her treatment of songs as songs, sometimes with jazz or blues inflections, sometimes not. What more natural then she should dedicate a set to songs associated with another unclassifiable but highly talented and respected singer, Nina Simone? So, Barb tackles the likes of folk songs, Bob Dylan numbers, the Bee Gee’s beautiful ‘To Love Somebody’ (also recorded by James Carr), ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’ – known to many from the Yardbirds, I would hazard a guess – and the sublime reworking of ‘Angel of The Morning’, and she makes each her own whilst maintaining the homage. Backing is courtesy of a stellar group drawn from the UK jazz scene, rounding off what is indeed a very classy package – and by no stretch of the imagination is this a jazz album, or a blues recording come to that. Having written that though, ‘Feeling Good’ does have all the enthusiasm and excitement of a sixties beat group performance. But try the reggae-inflected rendition of Dylan’s ‘Just Like A Woman’ for something different – or just try any of the eleven tracks. Too often tributes are over-respectful and over-reverent, but Barb certainly sounds as though she is enjoying herself and I doubt Ms Simone would have been too impressed with a straight copy of any of her numbers. As a result, Nina’s fans will be delighted with this joyous set, as no doubt will Barb’s, too.(Norman Darwen)
****Barb Jungr ‘Just Like A Woman (Hymn to Nina)’Record Collector, May 2008,
Finally, look out for Just Like A Woman (Hymn To Nina), a fabulous new album by BARB JUNGR, a Rochdale-born chanteuse with both Czech and German roots, who’s built her reputation as an interpreter of French chansons. Intended as an homage to Nina Simone, the 11-track CD finds Jungr offering radical and boldly imaginative reinventions of the Simone favourites Feeling Good and Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, plus a compelling, almost incantatory medley of One Morning In May and The Pusher.
Barb Jungr ‘Just Like A Woman (Hymn to Nina)’ Jazzwise, May 2008
Nowadays fewer singers do it than before, maybe because it's not simple (certainly not as simple as some people might make it out to be). We're speaking about thematically linked song programmes, as here. The small print explains, "all songs previously recorded by Nina Simone" though I admit to Simone singing The Pusher never having lodged in my cranium. Like Scarlett O' (Seeboldt) in Germany, Barb Jungr has developed the knack of creating cohesive and coherent song cycles. "Just Like a Woman" has Nina Simone's repertoire as its backbone but it is Jungr and the team that add new sinew, muscle and grey matter to what could have been easily turned into a posy of Nina nosegays.
For many Simone's piebald-varied repertoire will be the stuff of association - love affairs, flings, lives and deaths. Jungr's phrasing and ability to slide across end rhymes in to the next line are the stuff of revelation. Likewise, what music director Jenny Carr's figurative baton achieves. Danny Thompson's skeletal bass on Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood could be being played on, to summon an image from European folklore, wailing strings. "Just Like a Woman" works both as an artistic statement and an artistic unity.
*** Barb Jungr ‘Just Like A Woman’, Scotland on Sunday 16.3.08
Subtitled Hymn To Nina, this album is the English singer Barb Jungr's tribute to the late Nina Simone, one of her key influences. The 11 songs are all numbers that Simone herself interpreted - and range from traditional ballads, such as Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair, to pop classics, including a trio of Bob Dylan songs and the Gibb Brothers' To Love Somebody. Jungr's pure, throaty vocals have a fluidity and agility which allow her to pull off the trickiest numbers with graceful ease. (Alison Kerr)
Barb Jungr – Just Like A Woman. Sunday Mercury, Birmingham. March 16.3.2008-03-12
There’s an awful lot of female vocalists around at the moment and problem is many of them sound very much alike. The British born Barb Jungr doesn’t.
Following her recent, fine albums ‘Waterloo Sunset’ and ‘Every Grain of Sand’ she now pays homage to the music of the brilliant Nina Simone.
Her jazzy, Peggy Lee style vocals, coupled with some subtle playing from her backing band, make this a very interesting album. (Bev Bevan)
Barb Jungr's Hymn to Nina Simone (All About Jazz.com) March 4, 2008
"Just Like a Woman" is Barb Jungr's hymn to he late, legendary Nina Simone. This beautiful, haunting and reflective album comprises eleven songs famously interpreted by the great singer - a voice with whom she has often been compared. Like her mentor, Jungr is truly a singer who lives life through her work.
This release is backed by an extensive UK tour. She has just returned from New York where she collected the Nitelife Award for Outstanding Cabaret Vocalist 2008. For this recording, Barb surrounded herself with some of the UK's finest musicians, including Danny Thompson on bass and Mark Lockheart on saxophone and clarinets. The songs are imaginatively arranged and are performed throughout with lan and a moving lightness of touch. Highlights include a gorgeous rendition of “Lilac Wine", a robust take on “The Times They Are a-Changin'" and a floor-filling jazz-dance version of “Feeling Good". Co-produced by the Blue Nile producer Calum Malcolm, jazz instrumentation and a straight ahead sensibility blend with Jungr's knowing interpretations to powerful effect. Jungr is perhaps most famous for her re-workings of Bob Dylan songs.
WALKING IN THE SUN
"astute...simmering....intelligent"
The Sunday Times
"Magnificent ...Jungr's voice is truly a thing of wonder"
The Daily Express
Audiophile - 07/01/07 - High Fidelity Review Barb Jungr - Walking In The Sun
English chanteuse Barb Jungr knows how to give a song a personality, even when it is a song that already has a strong one. She's able to grab each song by the horns, and whether it is her own or someone else's to start with, by the time she's done, it's definitely hers. This could be a bad thing in the wrong hands, but fortunately, Jungr has the creativity, skill, and shrewd sense which put her into that select category of artists whom we're eager to hear cover songs. Her combination of covers and originals on her new Linn Records album 'Walking in the Sun' blends seamlessly into one of the most impressive albums I've heard this year.
Time and time again, Jungr shapes not only each line or even each song, but the entire ebb and flow of the album. For the keystone position at the center of the album, Jungr takes the melancholy "Rainy Day" by Brownie McGhee and alters the lyrics to sing it from the woman's point of view, an impressively effective conceit. The easier path would have been to merely change the gender being sung about in the song, but this angle makes it into a portrait of a restless woman's reflection on the path she had to take. Jessica Lauren's harmonica chimes in doleful commentary in the background, growing more elaborate as the song grows in emotion. The second half of the album starts off with 'Take Out Some Insurance' before Jungr tears into the next track, the most wide-flung and unexpected of the album. It starts with a harsh, aggressive a capella verse of the old traditional song 'Run On For A Long Time', which threatens that God will cut you down. But then it runs headlong into Randy Newman's acid-witted anti-faith song 'God's Song'. Its inclusion here is what makes Jungr's theme truly work. Her subject is faith, and she fearlessly dares to nail it to the wall with a blistering, theatrical account of the number.
Next, astonishingly, comes Bob Dylan's almost-lost masterpiece 'Blind Willie McTell'. I say astonishingly because it is boldness bordering on sacrilege to cover a song this great. Thus I was surprised and not a little concerned when I saw that Jungr was covering it on this album. And when the track first started, I was not happy. Jessica Lauren's arrangement here is almost buoyant, with a jazzy swing. At first glance, it seemed all wrong. But it doesn't pay to ever underestimate what Jungr and friends might have up their sleeves. As the groove settles in, it gives the song a period feel, like something out of the 1930's, with a wicked rhythmic hook. Soon it became clear that the buoyancy is actually nervous, kinetic energy. The jazz is the gallows-glamour of Great Depression-era clubs. Jungr turns up her radiance to full and slinks through the first few verses quite affectingly, if still seemingly at odds with the starkness of the song. Then she plays her trump card: The instruments abruptly cease, leaving her alone, vulnerable in the spotlight, lipstick gleaming as a tear falls. She slowly spins out the next verse and chorus like a glimpse into the center of a soul, shadowed by a few mere ghosts of dissonant notes drifting in from the background. When the instruments revive the groove, there is now an urgency and desperation that makes one believe, even if only for a few minutes, that this song couldn't be done any other way. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't heard it myself.
Once again, I find my thoughts turning back to Bob Dylan, who is obviously a central inspiration to Jungr, even though her own style is quite different from his. She has learned his lessons well: Lessons of vision, commitment, characterization, and control of the ebb and flow of energy. I can offer no greater praise than that. Suffice it to say that when I first started listening to this album, my first coherent thought was: "This can't possibly be this good." Now after exploring it, living with it, and running through it with a fine-toothed comb for a few weeks, all I can say is this: It is. (Mark Jordan)
**** "Walking in the Sun" Jazzwise (Nov 06)
A funky percussion intro is joined by a chunky double bass riff. Must be the latest Cassandra Wilson release, right? Wrong. On her fifth album for Linn Records Barb Jungr - flanked by the members of her new trio, pianist Jenny Carr and organist Jessica Lauren - returns to her first love, blues and gospel, and delivers her most compellingly sung and intensely vital collection to date. Compared to her acclaimed homages to Brel, Dylan and Presley, "Walking in the Sun" is promiscuously inclusive. Jungr's finely tuned sense of high-wire drama is brought to bear on the vivid imagery of Bo Diddley's Who Do You Love?, the wistful yearning of Carole King'sWay Over Yonder, Jimmy Cliff's Many Rivers to Cross complete with an ecstatic, hair-raising conclusion and, naturally, a further brace of Dylan songs (the powerful narratives of Trouble in Mind and Blind Willie McTell). The overriding impression is of each song being filtered through a decidedly creative and imaginative mind. (Peter Quinn)
**** Barb Jungr - Walking in the Sun (Audiophile Audition, Dec ’06)
Jungr makes just about every song in this stunning assortment her own
Barb Jungr is a very well known singer in her native England, where she’s had a lengthy career of performances and collaborations with numerous artists; most recently, she participated in the "Girl Talk" sessions with Claire Martin and Mari Wilson. She’s also become quite something of a musicologist, with a very keen interest in world music and she’s lectured extensively about singing and vocal performance. Her repertory is quite broad, encompassing diverse styles ranging from French chansons to cabaret, folk, gospel and blues. This superb disc fromLinn Records features an eclectic mix of gospel and blues, as well as songs from artists as diverse as Bob Dylan, Randy Newman and Carole King, and includes a couple of self-penned tunes as well. The resulting album has a very spiritual feel to it, and Barb Jungr finds a way to make just about every song in this stunning assortment her own.
Barb’s smoky-sweet alto is perfect here; on the disc’s opening track “Who Do You Love,” (popularized by George Thorogood’s raunch-n-roll version) she lends a very light vocal touch (almost a whisper), which theoretically seems totally wrong for this song, but she makes it just oh-so-right. The next track, Bob Dylan’s “Trouble In Mind,” opens with a sensationally smooth upright bass and finger-snapping intro, and segues into Barb’s spot-on vocal - this woman really knows how to sing the blues, and she can really belt it out as required. Jessica Lauren lends a lightly-played organ accompaniment that’s sheer perfection - one thing that’s evident from the start is how the vocal and instrumental textures are so perfectly arranged throughout this excellent disc... I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve hit the replay button on her soulful delivery of Brownie McGhee’s “Rainy Day.” It’s one of those magical moments where everything worked perfectly, and the resulting sounds are irresistible.
This is a textbook example of how surround sound should be done right. Highly recommended.
****"Walking In The Sun" Rainbow Network,
Barb Jungr has just released her fifth album, Walking in the Sun, and it's a collection of songs, most of which are covers, but perhaps few of which you’ll actually have heard before.
Who is Jungr? An accomplished and eclectic singer, she has been called the English Edith Piaf. Having come to prominence through her performances in Edinburgh, Jungr's shows are a mixture of torch songs and edgy cabaret. With a background in ethnomusicology and an interest in all forms of traditional music, she fuses jazz, blues and folk influences. Basically, it's all about the song.
And songs are the hook on which this latest album hangs. Two Bob Dylan compositions, a Randy Newman piece, Carole King and others less known, but these are not generally standards. Instead, these are the kinds of songs that someone who really knows about music would choose and with her beautiful voice, which is high and clear, sensual and rich, Jungr brings her own personal interpretation to these songs. At times it seems as though she's channelling Peggy Lee or Nina Simone, at others she could be revisiting an earlier incarnation, for example her rendition of ‘Run On For a Long Time’ is reminiscent of her work with The Three Courgettes.
Walking in the Sun is an album for more sophisticated listeners. It has a sparse, smoky, after hours atmosphere and, should you be a rare muso with a Linn listening device, you'll be able to enjoy the genius of this album's innovative technical production.
But despite the sunshiny title, this album has its dark moments. The jazzy arrangements may be easy on the ear, but the lyrics tell tales of heartbreak and anguish.
LOVE ME TENDER
The Sunday Times March 6.05 **** stars
Poised between pop, jazz and cabaret, Jungr’s tributes to Jacques Brel, Léo Ferré and Dylan are among the most thoughtful British recordings of the past decade. She takes risks — an album dedicated to Presley could easily turn into high-grade kitsch — but there are no such problems here. Always on My Mind, along with the title ballad and the superb Love Letters, are transformed. The arrangers, Adrian York and Jonathan Cooper, have stripped the pieces to their basics, with Jungr’s voice cushioned by celeste, minimalist piano figures and string quartet. Presley’s lush sentimentality goes out of the window: in its place is an art-song sensibility tinged with cultured R&B. (Clive Davis)
Audiophile Edition, Aug 05. ****1/2 stars
Cabaret singer's unexpected takes on hits of Elvis and Dylan
If you hate it when you go to a concert and all your favourite band plays is cover songs, then don't go see Barb Jungr's fall tour. She is tearing up Europe and West following the recent release of Love Me Tender; which includes 11 songs performed by Elvis and two by Bob Dylan. Her exotic voice drives me to fantasise about her sitting atop a piano in a smoky pub, holding a cigarello in one hand and a tall glass of Boddingtons in the other. Heartbreak Hotel blows me away every time I listen to it. The fresh rendition with Barb‘s signature jazzy overtone touch is so breath-taking, you really can't believe the rock roots behind it. To compare Barb with other singers wouldn’t do her talents justice, but if I had to, I would say the closest audible comparison would be Johnette Napolitano from Concrete Blonde. I have never been a fan of Elvis' music, but get me to Graceland baby, I have been reborn!!!!
Barb, a cabaret singer by trade, has herein followed up her 2002 release, Every Grain of Sand, a superb album chock full of Bob Dylan’s songs. Her raspy, Marlboro-perfected voice out performs any impersonator I have ever heard. Barb's soulful voice does wonders for all 13 tracks on the album. In the Ghetto is perfectly crooned. I can only imagine how lucky the band members felt at the end of that session. One of my favourites, Are You Lonely Tonight, is done with such raw emotion, that I can't visualise it being sung by Elvis.
Barb's classical rendition of the rebellious song I Shall Be Released (one of my favourite Bob Dylan songs snuck into this album) could start riots in the prisons with her, “Come on boys follow me!” attitude. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the album. I have never been a fan of Elvis' music when performed by him, but these covers are amazing. I just wish Barb was gigging over here, maybe at the Green Mill in Chicago… I dream big! (Paul Pelon IV)
* * * * stars Record Collector, December 2005.
The King’s Music as you’ve never heard it before.
If pigeonholed as a kind of British “answer” to Juliette Greco, Jungr functions as a composer as well as an adroit interpreter of the songs of others. nevertheless, as Greco did with Serge Gainsbourg, she has chosen to focus on one particular artist over an entire album. Response to the general result depends upon a number of variables - such as how precious you are about one such as she warping Presley so daringly to her own highly individual devices - and enunciating clearly lyrics that the Hillbilly Cat mumbles.
She hasn’t picked much that’s especially stylised; no 12-bar Blue Suede Shoes or I Was The One with its cliched chord sequence - though there’s a spooky Heartbreak Hotel that is more eye-stretching an overhaul than even John Cale’s in 1974. Other highlights include a brace of Dylan numbers that Elvis recorded - plus a jagged Jungr original, Looking For Elvis - and, fellas, that’s Mari Wilson, sometime Neasden Queen of Soul, helping her out on backing vocals. (Alan Clayson)
* * * * and a half stars All Music Guide, 2005.
Another exquisite, at times astonishing, album from Miss Jungr. Unlike Bob Dylan, whose songbook the singer had so expressively re-imagined on Every Grain of Sand, Elvis Presley was never himself a composer, depending instead entirely on professional publishers for his material, much of it originally chosen for its commercial prospects; however, even at its worst -- the soundtracks to the crap cookie-cutter movies the King made in the '60s usually come to mind here -- his recorded output had a certain consistency to it. On reflection that is primarily because, even at their qualitative best, his songs were as much about the sensual, muscular, bel canto performances and tied to the superstar singer's outsize, magnetic personality as they were about the merits of the tunes themselves. In other words, you are listening to Elvis sing those songs more than you are listening to the songs he is singing. In a way, that makes Jungr's Love Me Tender all the more remarkable: you do not hear the King at all here except in faint echoes and traces, like barely remembered fairy tales you were told as a child as you were drifting off to sleep. This isn't an exercise in dress-up, as it very easily might have been. Instead you are treated to a phenomenally responsive singer finding her way into and breathing the oxygen of forgotten stories, while, in the process, refitting them to say something real and useful, something personal about your world and about the one long past. In a sense, you are hearing these songs -- many of them now considered classics (pop/rock standards, if such things exist) -- for the first time. Worlds of passion and pain, discovery and dislocation exist in these songs. They are so entirely reinvented by Jungr, her brilliant arrangers Adrian York and Jonathan Cooper, and producer Calum Malcolm that the prevailing mood of the album is transformed into a mosaic, a complex map of one woman's fully lived life, from the dizzy, tender love letters of expectation to the lonesome heartbreak hotels that litter the highways of life, and all the attendant reveries, roadblocks, and realisations along the way, until she arrives at the gospel of her -- your -- existence, an exultant take on one of Presley's own favourite Baptist hymns, Thomas A. Dorsey's "Peace in the Valley." Jungr may have been "Looking for Elvis," as she sings in the album's sole self-written original, but she found herself. And in that discovery, there is a certain gesture of sublime benevolence toward the listener. Love Me Tender is an autobiography of shared memory, but more than that it is a primer to how people refashion that memory to ascertain and navigate their own trajectories. (Stanton Swihart)
* * * * stars The Daily Express - May 2005
Whether it's adding a different spin or simply revealing hidden depths, a good cover version should always bring something new to a song. This collection of Elvis Presley covers from jazz singer and cabaret queen Barb Jungr manages to do both marvellously. From a slow and stripped-back "Heartbreak Hotel", with only piano and harp accompanying it, through to a spooky "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", these versions brilliantly bring out the haunting beauty of some of Elvis Presley's biggest hits. In the process, they make you feel as if your hearing the all-too familiar songs for the very first time. A must-have.
(Marcus Dunk)
The Singer, June 2005
One could argue that there was always a darker side to The King, but the hips distracted you. paring his greatest hits down to their bare essentials, as Barb Jungr has done in her latest CD from Linn records (Love Me Tender - AKD 255) reveals a collection of tracks heavy with potent lyrics, which have, up till now, been more familiar to us for their melodies (and the hips) A tall order to achieve this, but naturally Jungr is the one to do it. And there is a feel to the whole album that renders multiple listenings possible, so that the achievement is more than just rearrangement for rearrangement’s sake. Some numbers are wonderfully quirky, such as ‘Wooden Heart’, and ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’ is haunting to the point of almost becoming an invocation of the spirit of The King himself.
Yorkshire Post , March 2005
Jazz meets sophisticated cabaret in the singing of Barb Jungr, and on this wonderful, offbeat CD, it also meets the music of Elvis Presley. An alliance between jazz and Elvis is an unlikely one, but Jungr makes it work thanks to her unorthodox approach to familiar material and her gift for finding the emotional centre of a song. Presley casts a long shadow over these songs, and it's testament to Jungr's individuality that she makes them sound as if they were written just for her. (Andrew Vin)
HMV Choice - March/April 2005
New high queen of cabaret reinterprets the songs of the king of rock 'n' roll. Barb Jungr is widely regarded as Britain's most gifted song stylist, a true renaissance woman with her heart and roots in alternative cabaret and her head in all manner of intellectual endeavour. Following on from her acclaimed collections of French chanson and classic Bob Dylan comes this beguiling sojourn in the steps of one Elvis Aaron Presley. Jungr displays a fearless originality in rescuing the man's legacy from all those legions of second-rate imitators, actively seeking out the unexplored nuance in songs long since rendered virtually meaningless through sheer familiarity. Lyrics are eloquently enunciated rather than laboured over, while the stark arrangements reveal a haunting dimension of lost innocence. Although Jungr abandons her restraint for a thrillingly soulful In the Ghetto and unexpectedly declamatory I Shall be Released, for the most part she leaves the listener hanging pensively on her every utterance.
SACD NEWS
Barb Jungr Takes an Uncharted Journey Into The King's Legacy
Barb Jungr has deconstructed some his most famous songs, as well as some of his lesser known and gospel songs, and created a dark and intriguing journey through, love, loneliness, obsession and faith. These new and revealing interpretations will surprise those who know the songs only as performed by Presley. Jungr’s renditions shift meaning and tone to create a completely new landscape and reveal as they do how the singer transforms a song. ‘Love Me Tender’ underlines Jungr’s reputation as one of the most original artists of our day.
JARS 154, April 05.
Jungr’s voice, always affecting courtesy of its ability to move uncontrivedly between the most intimate dramatic whisper, a confiding earnestness tinged with melancholy vibrato, and a strident assertiveness, brings out all her material’s subtlest nuances and the resulting album, which also contains a haunting original, ‘Looking for Elvis’, can only bolster Jungr’s already considerable reputation as one of Europe’s most intriguing and intelligent interpreters of the contemporary song.
Jazzwise, July 2005
Barb Jungr is one of Britain's most effective deliverers of sonic bombshells. Here she tackles a body of songs associated with Elvis Presley, complemented by an original composition written by her and Adrian York. She starts the proceedings with a luscious rendering of "Love Letters", a colloquy between voice, celeste and cello. "Heartbreak Hotel" has a similar leanness and leaning towards loneliness. The choice of two Dylan songs "I Shall Be Released" and "Tomorrow is a Long Time" seems tenuous, a throwback to her Dylan anthology, Every Grain of Sand. What she does with a bunch of songs that ubiquity has devalued is interesting and brave. (Ken Hunt)
WATERLOO SUNSET
Jazz Times, USA, June 2004
Now, in that distinctly winning style of hers that suggests Peggy Lee funnelled through Joan Baez, Jungr tackles a much broader theme-masks, real or imagined, that we all tend to wear from time to time-on the engagingly eclectic Waterloo Sunset (Linn. Jungr navigates the soft-flowing tide of Ray Davies' title tune with wistful contentment and manages what may well be the first female cover of Steve Miller's testosterone-fueled "The Joker." None can, however, quite compare to the self-absorbed remorse that Jungr lends to Charles de Forest's dusky lament to perennial bridesmaids, "When Do the Bells Ring for Me?". (Christopher Loudon)
Record Collector **** stars April 2004
Another side of Barb Jungr
For anybody to tackle ‘Waterloo Sunset’, they must be touched or divine. Barb Jungr pulls it off. Ergo, she must be both. (Ken Hunt)
The Rough Guide To Cult Pop' 2003
Rochdale has produced arguably the finest cabaret singer in recent times, Barb Jungr. Good as Lisa (Stansfield) is, Jungr's album 'Chanson The Space In Between' (Linn) shows real soul: it's quirky, intelligent cabaret music of the highest order. (Rough Guide/Haymarket Publishers)
Jazzwise, 2004
The recent progress and peregrinations of jazz-chansonnier par excellence Barb Jungr have been remarkable. Above all, one song bottles Jungr’s otherness when it comes to interpreting a lyric. The unholy chutzpah she displays in covering one of the Twentieth Century’s (and London’s all-time) greatest songs, Davies’ ‘Waterloo Sunset’ semaphores a brain-fevered, kamikaze instinct, yet in the moment when she sings the first line she puts the romantic filth into the Thames in a way that only the illegitimate influence of Ewan MacCollís ‘Sweet Thames, Flow Softly’ and ‘Dirty Old Town’ might match. That takes something. Beeline time. (Ken Hunt)
MOJO, December 2003
Jungr inhabits somewhere between Brel Broadway, Jazz Junction and Rock Revival land, where the lyric rules supreme and interpretation is all that really matters. Jungr knows a good song when she sings it. But the lady has other strings to her bow. For she's also an outstanding songwriter, as the opening Do You Play Guitar? and the boppish Lipstick Lips Lament prove. (Fred Dellar)
Jazz Review, 2004
Having established herself as one of the most original and intelligent interpreters of a lyric on the contemporary scene with her highly individual takes on Brel (Chanson The Space In Between) and Dylan (Every Grain Of Sand), Jungr is unrivalled for her ability to inhabit a song's emotional world, and the combination of her subtly enquiring sensibility and pleasingly tremulous vocal timbre with the music of a neat, versatile, punchy band centred on the flawless Adrian York is, although most effective in her entrancing live shows, utterly beguiling on disc. (Chris Parker)
EVERY GRAIN OF SAND
Top Ten Jazz Albums Of The Year in The Sunday Times, The Telegraph and The Washington Paper.
The Observer On Sunday March 2002
Her instrument is shockingly expressive, with an astonishing palette of colours, and thats before she gets down to the business of interpretation. Singing Dylan's eloquent short stories she flashes between crooning tenderness on "If Not For You" to full blooded lament on "Don't Think Twice It's Al Right". She can sound as husky and cracked as Judy Dench and like her, she understands characterisation. Jungr repeatedly reawakens detailed emotion lying dormant in lyrics. I just hope that Dylan himself has a listen and starts writing for her direct. (David Benedict)
MOJO, May 2002
Jungr approaches the Dylan songbook with a rare degree of intelligence, relishing each line in the manner of a true chansonnier. The kind of voice that many more should get around to hearing. (Fred dellar)
The Times March 2002
Jungr's collection, "Every Grain Of Sand" comes as a quiet revelation....her sensual performance casts the songs in a fresh light. (Clive Davis,)
The Telegraph April 2002
There is a faint hint of Lotte Lenya meets Bob Dylan... on this odd, but refreshing and strangely touching album. (Martin Gayford)
All About Jazz.com, USA September 2002
A highly personal style that suggests a contemporary amalgam of Peggy Lee and Nina Simone. Like both women, Jungr often moves around the circumference of jazz although she can and does sing straight ahead jazz. Jungr does exquisite justice to lyrics singing them in a voice that seems capable of expressing every gradation of feeling. (Mathew Bahl)
All Music Guide, USA, September 2002
Ppart of the sublime beauty of Every Grain of Sand is that it inspires, even challenges, one to make personal revisions and reinterpretations. Ultimately, Jungr is one of the few artists who has managed to not only come out on the other side of this songbook unscathed but to actually come out having enhanced its gravity, significance, and unvarnished beauty, as well as her own. She is not merely singing, but telling stories. She opens up a window of vulnerability and sensuality that previously sat stoic beneath the surface of these songs, and suffuses them with such a delicate, gauzy luminosity that they seem to glow from the inside out. Her singing is soulful and emotionally naked, and the performances so expressive that you take something new away with each listen. (Stanton Swihart)
Folk Roots, July '02
Barb Jungr has grown into one of this country's finest interpreters of contemporary song , judging by her "Chanson The Space In Between" (2000) and "Every Grain Of Sand" (2002). (Ken Hunt)
CHANSON: THE SPACE IN BETWEEN
Top Ten Jazz Albums of the Year in The Sunday Times
The Times June 2001
At home with pop and blues as well as jazz, the immaculate Barb Jungr has won a well deserved reputation as Britain's answer to Juliette Greco and Serge Gainsbourg. (Clive Davis)
Record Buyer and Music Collector 2000
Possessing nothing as dull as orthodox talent...an English Piaf is just what the world needs. (Alan Clayson)
G Scene Magazine August 2000
Barb's interpretation of Brel's Marieke is so beautiful and haunting it's hard not to fall instantly in love with it (Michael Hootman)
The Singer, October cover feature. 2000
Barb Jungr has found her niche, she is superb (Sandra Lawrence)
Culture Wars, 2000
The transmission of sincerity through music is one of the most intangible and difficult challenges a singer can undertake. Jungr, it must be said, rises to the occasion magnificently. Jungr's album is a wonderful thing. (Sandy Star)
|
|
|
CD REVIEWS 
