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Barb Jungr at Ronnie Scotts, **** The Guardian, Jan 26th, 08 Tonight, Jungr evokes Simone's memory through repertoire rather than emulation. Simone was an inspired curator - she had taste and talent for reinterpreting and reimagining in a way that made good songs great. Jungr sings these songs - Black Is the Colour... , Ain't Got No, To Love Somebody - in her light, clear voice, adding a few twists and tweaks of her own. Angel of the Morning is "the other side of Maggie May ... could be the story of Bet Lynch". Dylan's Ballad of Hollis Brown has a clever, delicate arrangement, with repetitive piano, mbira and restrained soprano sax from Mark Lockheart. The medley of One Morning in May and The Pusher makes original use of an electronic Indian drone box and hand drums. The best numbers, such as Just Like a Woman (the title of her forthcoming album) and the encore of Here Comes the Sun, employ beautiful, three-part vocal harmonies from Jungr, pianist Jenny Carr and multi-instrumentalist Jessica Lauren - recalling Jungr's early career in the Three Courgettes. As befits the cabaret genre, Jungr's band is highly disciplined, resisting the temptation to over-egg such a strong repertoire, and the audience lap it up. John Waters Jazz Pick of the Week, The Guardian Guide, Sat 1st March Newbury Weekly News, February 08 Barb Jungr has already given us her interpretations of the work of Dylan and Elvis and this new show, Hymn to Nina, which she showcased at The Corn Exchange last Thursday is her tribute to the great Nina Simone. As Jungr explained at the outset, this is more than a collection of “covers.” “ To my mind this work surpasses Jungr’s previous shows because it contains so many different shades of mood. Just like a Woman, for example, was given a reggae-tinged beat, would you believe and Times the are a Changing suddenly became a wonderful, West Side Story skippy-down-the street celebration of good news. If you wonder what both these Dylan classics have to do with Nina Simone, well, Simone sang them too, which is good enough for me. Jungr never re-structures a number for the sake of musical exhibitionism, as do many jazz singers. So when she can’t find much to improve in a song she sings it straight. Lilac Wine was a case in point. Everyone was waiting for the big finish, a la Elkie Brooks, but Jungr down-played it. The lyric makes more sense when sung with restraint and the song worked the better for it. My Father, more usually associated with Judy Collins, was another song left to speak for itself and she did the same with Angel of the Morning the lyrics of which became a touching lament, quite unlike Billie Davies’s full-throated rant. In concert mode Jungr was unchanged from the “Barb” who entertains us by sheer force of her personality at The Blue Hours. The only difference was the addition of Jessica Lauren – a multi-instrumentalist and keyboard player who brought a tremendous amount to the backing, led by Jenny Carr on piano. The mix and match of When I was a Young Girl and Steppenwolf’s The Pusher with a persistent humming in the background from Lauren’s box of tricks was particularly dramatic. As the two contributed so much to the show it was somehow fitting that they shared harmonies on the final number, a gorgeous, fragile interpretation of Here comes the Sun. The album Just Like A Woman - Hymn to Nina( Linn Records akd309) comes out in March. You’d be a mug to miss it. Fred Redwood. Barb Jungr at Ronnie Scott's, London W1, January 28, 2008 Before her death in 2003, Nina Simone's final shows at this venue were fraught for the management. The chanteuse would arrive in her fur coat at the last minute, shopping bags in hand, and stride straight through the club to the piano. No such diva-ish behaviour from Barb Jungr, who is prompt, sober and eager to entertain with her Hymn to Nina set. The singer, who has already re-interpreted Dylan and Elvis, wisely does not deliver a slavish copycat show. With her breezy Mancunian charm, Jungr singing I Put a Spell on You is a good deal less threatening than the complex and troubled Simone doing the same. Instead, inspired by Simone's broad range - gospel, pop, blues, jazz - Jungr takes songs associated with her and offers her own imaginative interpretations. Dylan's Just Like a Woman becomes lover's rock, Feeling Good is an R'n'B stomper. She finds a fit between When I Was a Young Girl and Steppenwolf's The Pusher. Jungr, an imposing figure in black with long blond mane, sits astride a stool. Her delivery reaches every corner of the packed room (for the second time at Ronnie's, I find myself standing at the back). It's the ballads that the crowd loves best - Lilac Wine, Angel of the Morning and the Bee Gees' To Love Somebody, sung full-throated, an arm outstretched. Her five-piece band are an efficient, if restrained, unit and the great Mark Lockheart on saxophone breaks sweat only rarely. This, though, was the first date with the new material and doubtless they will loosen up. And, unlike those later Simone shows when the diva ran out of voice and interest, Jungr finishes on a high with an elegant Here Comes the Sun. John Bungay
The New York Times That performance on Thursday was typical of Ms. Jungr’s radical approach to songs by Bob Dylan, Richard Thompson, Ray Davies and other songwriters whose work you think you know from recordings in which the arrangements appear indivisible from your sense of the material. Arranged for voice and accordion (played by her excellent pianist and sideman, Charlie Giordano), her version of Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” treated the song as a funny, personal, fragrantly sexy prelude to bedroom delights. Ms. Jungr, a professed Dylan fanatic, said on Thursday that she imagined its setting to be the Deep South, a region she admitted she had seen only in films and never visited. The three other Dylan numbers in the set included an intense reading of “I Want You,” a fervent gospel “Ring Them Bells” and a delightfully happy-go-lucky “If Not for You.” Demonstrating formidable vocal flexibility, she took obscure songs by Brownie and Ruth McGhee (“Rainy Day”) and Eric Bibb and Levi B. Saunders (“Heading Home”) from smoky, reflective plateaus to feral emotional peaks, and then with perfect timing retreated downhill.
New York Theatre Wire, Jan. 15, 2008 Jungr, whose powerful voice ranges from low and husky to ringing with a slight tremolo, sang a repertoire heavily leaning toward her personal favorites, most specifically Bob Dylan. There was also some Jacques Brel, her own "Beautiful Life," (written with Adrian York), and an Edith Piaf classic, "Non, je ne regrette rien," which she performed with the same English lyrics Piaf used when she appeared in the United States. This is the song that gave the show its name, "No Regrets. The Remarkable Barb Jungr." Of course, what's really remarkable about Barb Jungr is the way she makes every song her own. Thus Dylan's "I Want You," "If Not for You" and "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" become love songs in ways the singer/songwriter himself may have never been able to realize. For the latter song, her New York accompanist, the superb Charlie Giordano, usually on piano, takes up his accordion for unexpectedly moving results. A meticulous artist, Jungr was not satisfied with available translations of Brel's work. So she commissioned her own from Des de Moor for "Don't Leave Me" and "Marieke" because, as she said with a devilish glint in her eye, "People can't be bothered with learning French." For those in the audience who are unfamiliar with European geography, Jungr explained that the lines "from Brugge to Ghent" indicate a trip analogous to traveling from New York City to Trenton, NJ. Jungr's emotionally vibrant interpretations of Elvis classics "Heartbreak Hotel," "for anyone dumped," and "In the Ghetto," a song he was initially cautioned against recording, played a big part in her repertoire as well. Jungr is sultry in a way that makes one think of crowded bistros entered through a beaded door, dimly lit and filled with smoke. Cigarettes are now banned in most public places. But, have no fear, Jungr provides her own smoke. By Paulanne Simmons
‘Shades of Dylan’ - Newbury Weekly, Thursday March 1st 2007, “They’re not afraid to cry in New York – they kind of let it all out. In Britain, audiences say ‘You made me cry’. Just a little cross cultural observation . But that doesn’t apply in Newbury because people are quite emotional here.” The audience laughs with pleasure and Barb Jungr, perched on a high- stool in the middle of the stage, cuts into her version of an obscure Dylan track, lacing her powerfully- deep vocals over the top of a melodic piano and punchy harmonica. Were it not for Jungr’s cultural observations, you might be excused for mistaking your seat at New Greenham Arts Centre on Friday for a small vessel illuminating the banks of the Mississippi River with candles, tended by female blues legends Bessie Smith and Louise Johnson. Yet there’s something in Jungr’s work that cuts even deeper than this profound river. Not only is there a blues-gospel dimension thrown casually into her work, but there is also Dylan right there in front of you, staring out with eyes that peer from under years of folk, rock’n’roll, and electrified blues. Yet the most accomplished aspect of Jungr’s work is her capacity to adjust Dylan by fading him in and out of focus all evening. One minute he is there – in Tangled Up In Blue he is palpable – the next minute he is going soft around the edges, and at times he is unrecognisable. And even as they see Dylan start to fade, the audience does not want to twist the lens and bring him back, such is Jungr’s control over her arrangements and the capacity in which she holds her audience. When covering Just Like A Rolling Stone, which marked Dylan’s est4rangement from his early Woody Guthrie folk roots, most would succeed only in leaving the audience pining over the original. With Jungr’s rendition of the track, Dylan may as well have vanished completely from the melody and his lyrics alone are somehow glorified as a result – raised up on high to be admired and cherished. Take away the powerful, yet dulcet tones, of Barb Jungr, and the audience discovers a woman with a light Manchester accent sitting astride a barstool and interspersing her interpretations of Dylan’s work with short comic sketches about her travels and observations, her time in Newbury, and of course, Dylan. “His lyrics are about love and death, humanity and the lack of humanity. They are incredibly artistic – they’re layered and textured.” Jungr’s voice and arrangements add yet another layer and another texture to this already complex fusion. But far from confusing Dylan lovers, her performance adds clarity to his work, illuminating the greatness of one of the 20th century’s most renowned singer songwriters. Jungr will return to New Greenham Arts, which she has played every month for the last three years, on March 10th to record a film about her work. (Miles Amoore) Bob by Barb Barb Jungr sings Bob Dylan Some Dylan lyrics, such as the opener, High Water (Rising), still have the ability to bewilder one on first listening, but Jungr’s affecting and impassioned treatments of If Not for You, I’ll be Your Baby Tonight and I Want You need no deep intellectual contemplation to appreciate. The songs vary from sentimental to dramatic and highly emotional. In spite of remaining firmly anchored to a stool while she performed, Jungr is always in motion – head, arms and body continually in motion, moving with the music, swaying, gesturing. Her patter is topical, relevant and witty, and responsible in no small way for the success of her show. She’s funny, she’s tough, she’s unpredictable, she’s irreverent. And can she sing! A special word is also due the arrangements and accompaniment of Charles Giordano. His instrumental support, on piano and accordion, is spare, extraordinarily effective in its minimalist backing to Jungr’s vocalizing. There is another side in reserve, however. With Forever Young, Giordano takes off his figurative gloves and, with Jungr, lets it rip. It is an impressive show of force for both of them. Barb Jungr Sings Bob Dylan will be at the Metropolitan Room Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays though February 3rd. Jungr at heart BARB JUNGR SINGS DYLAN Jungr cuts a sharp presence on a cabaret stage, as she demonstrated anew in her latest stint at The Metropolitan Room, which justly has earned a reputation as a smart, intimate venue with good space and a fine sound and light system. The room is much needed at this time when old venues have been disappearing. The most passionate, heartfelt song, during which you could hear a pin drop in the room, was “With God on Our Side,” an anti-war expression of the cynical way in which everyone initiating wars always claims to be supported by God. Sung currently in America, it inevitably brings to mind the Iraq morass. Jungr was especially effective with this Dylan work. Other songs in her repertoire included “If Not for You,” “High Water for Charlie Patton,” “Ring Them Bells,” “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight,” “Blind Willie McTell,” and “Like a Rolling Stone.” Her excellent pianist was Charlie Giordano. Jungr has amusing anecdotes to tell. Her recording of “I Want You,” which she also sang, was chosen by actor Jeremy Irons as the song he’d most want to have with him to listen to if he were marooned on a desert island. She gets mileage out of that, including her observation that Irons is better looking in person than on screen. Barb Jungr @ The Lowry 'Walking In The Sun' Born in Rochdale and raised in Stockport, Barb moved to London in the mid-1970s where she became part of the early cabaret circuit and has pursued this line of work by creating the 'Girl Talk' show with singers Claire Martin and Mari Wilson. Signing to Glasgow based label Linn Records in 2000 enabled Jungr to set out a clear vision for personal music projects that have thus far included re-working the music of Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley and exploring the French chanson. Throughout proceedings at tonight's concert Barb was very ably assisted by accompaniment on piano from Jenny Carr whose blues-inflected playing echoed Rooosevelt Sykes and Memphis Slim in their prime, while the multi-talented Jessica Lauren laid down some soulful grooves on organ and doubled up on folksy harmonica. This atypical trio format worked surprisingly well and harked back to the soul jazz and folk blues revival combos of the 1960s, providing the ideal backdrop for Jungr's vocals. They should record together some time soon! Barb made it clear from the outset that she would be previewing new songs from a new album due out in October. If the bluesy 'Waking in Memphis' is anything to go by, it should at least be the equal of the acclaimed tribute album to Dylan. The exquisite selection of songs reads like a who's who of early soul and blues: Brownie Mc Ghee, Jimmy Reed, Percy Sledge and a faithful rendering of deep soul legend Garnett Mimms' 'I'll Take Good Care Of You' Barb Wired Uh-uh. Jungr’s a philosopher of song. She won’t sing anything unless she has a response to a melody and lyric that comes from her probing mind and fervid heart. Once she’s decided she’ll devote herself to an oeuvre–Jacques Brel and Bob Dylan are previous targets–she considers each selection for periods of time, even broods about it. That’s why when she does “Love Me Tender,” it’s only after she’s discoursed on James Lee Burke novels and insisted she hears the Presley-Vera Matson chart-topper as an outcry by a Southern woman sitting in a one-horse town on a sultry summer night. When she does “Kentucky Rain” (Eddie Rabbit-Dick Heard), she’s talked amusingly about her familiarity from childhood on with inclement weather. Although she’s not interested in running Presley facts, she does suggest that the icon’s often-assumed reliance on Colonel Tom Parker may not be so total, since it was Presley, she claims, who insisted on releasing the “political” “In the Ghetto” (Scott Davis). Then she acts out the story of a young boy’s tragic demise as if it were a James Dean flick. Accompanist Charlie Giordano manfully keeps up with her. Jungr, whose surname suggests the adjective “jugular,” can rattle the rafters with her voice when she chooses. She chose just that on the traditional “Peace in the Valley,” suggesting by her reading that peace is only achieved as a result of angry activism. Major talent here, folks. (David Finkle) Every Grain Of Sand, Adelaide Cabaret Festival June 06 Waterloo Sunset, Adelaide Cabaret Festival June 06 Waterloo Sunset, Adelaide Cabaret Festival June 06 Every Grain Of Sand, Adelaide Cabaret Festival June 06 Waterloo Sunset, Adelaide Cabaret Festival June 06 Barb Jungr is certainly my discovery from this year’s Festival for she is that all too rare example of the complete sophisticated entertainer. With the Teutonic bone structure of a Joni Mitchell, the authoritative stance of a Marianne Faithfull and the singular ability to amuse, educate and communicate, Barb had the responsive audience hanging on every word. I now look forward to a return season when she will present her programmes of the ‘other Elvis’ and the chanson according to Piaf and Brel. Every Grain Of Sand, Adelaide Cabaret Festival June 06 She won the audience over with her emotional intensity, an engaging patter about everything from her friends and family to her life as an artist. Winner 2003 International Artist Of The Year, New York Backstage Bistro Award for Excellence in Cabaret. Time Out New York 2004 Top Ten Cabaret Shows - Barb Jungr at Mama Rose’s. Time Out New York Top Ten Best Cabaret Shows of 2004 - Barb Jungr at Mama Rose’s - "Jungr’s singing soars with emotion yet has the intimacy of a private conversation." The Scotsman, August 05. In black dress and very high glittery black heels, and perched on a bar stool, Jungr re-works the King's classics for us, underpinned by startling minimalist arrangements by Jonathan Cooper and Adrian York. Played by pianist Russell Churney, they undercut any easy melodic sentiment, leaving Jungr free to tease out new and unexpected emotional meanings. Jungr is obviously a star and had me weeping by the time she delved into the regrets of Always On My Mind. Her linking chat, which verges on stand-up, is disconcertingly honest, local and funny. But hey, at 5.30pm, despite a hot summer day beckoning outside, she can have you in the palm of her hand in a dark bar. Glory Glory Hallelujah, Barb. Nice one. (Jan Fairley) The Herald, Glasgow, August 05 She invokes James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels, so it's more Louisiana than Tennessee but she focuses on the human/inhuman qualities – love, heartbreak, redemption, racism – with an unerring eye. Laced with mirthful Lancashire lass recollections and observations, this is intensely physical music-theatre with a bravura, wrung-out performance from Jungr, particularly in the gospel sequence, and an atmosphere of suspense that's only heightened by stark, staccato piano accompaniments from Russell Churney, who takes his one chance to really give it one with conspicuous relish. (Rob Adams) The Times Top Five Jazz The List , August 2005 The Times 20.7.05 None of those misgivings matter one little bit when she weaves her stunning version of Love Letters Straight From the Heart, the opening track of her new album inspired by the music of Elvis Presley. Yes, you heard that right. While every other singer, it seems, is busy rummaging through Elvis Costello’s catalogue, Jungr has set off in an entirely different direction, sweeping away the Graceland kitsch and casting an entirely new light on the singer who brought rock ’n’ roll to Las Vegas. One of the most thoughtful British albums of the year, Love Me Tender is no less daring than Jungr’s earlier reinventions of the songs of Bob Dylan on Every Grain of Sand. It was Dylan, in fact, who cast the longer shadow over Jungr’s opening set, a pensive affair in which her longtime accomplice Adrian York supplied the taut piano accompaniment. High Water (For Charlie Patton) remained as cryptic as ever; even a singer as resourceful as Jungr can only begin to scratch the surface of those lyrics. Ring Them Bells was suffused with gospel passion, however, and I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight overflowed with half-suppressed longing. Jungr could teach Madonna a thing or two about how to convey sensuality through words alone.” (Clive Davis) TIME OUT LONDON April 13 - 20. 2005 She follows up albums of Brel and Dylan covers with ‘Love Me Tender’, her take on the bloated legacy of Elvis Presley. ‘He’s iconic” says Jungr, ‘a wonderful singer with an amazing body of work, but he’s a bit like Billie Holiday - you’re not allowed to be critical. I wanted to look at Elvis the ‘non-saint’ as well as the nature of songs from the ‘50’s - all that postwar optimism and tin pan alley sweetness.’ Jungr re-examines the songs through twenty-first century glasses - her slow, bleak but strangely beautiful versions finding a sadness and weirdness in Presley’s best known songs. ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’ becomes a ghosts lament and ‘Love Me Tender’ an obsessive’s dark song. Her genius is that she removes the Americana, creating instead a sort of European art music noir. Simply framed by Adrian York’s piano, nothing stands between the listener and the song. With Jungr’s pure, quirky, powerful voice to guide you, you’ll find a depth in these songs never previously imagined, (Kersten Mackness) The Stage, April 25th, 2005. Newbury Weekly News, Feb 2005. The project is ambitious. There’s a film-noir romanticism to the French capital of the 1950s but there’s no poetry in the red-neck states. What’s there to sing about in those parched, barren lands, best known for poverty and political reactionaries? The answer is, the memory of Elvis himself, whose lyrics, Barb writes in the programme, “tell a story of love, loss and faith.” All this may sound like music to slash your wrists to but it was no such thing. Barb lightened the mood with her trade-mark banter, slipping in and out of role easily, while remaining credible throughout. Forget Presley, this was more the musical equivalent of a collection of short stories by Steinbeck. It was a very special night at New Greenham Arts. (Fred Redwood). Eschewing the overnotated margins of The Great American Songbook, she gravitates to storytelling songs by the likes of Dylan, Elvis Costello, Ray Davies and Richard Thompson, reinventing them with warmth and sensitive musicality. She knows just how a song should feel. (Adam Feldman) World Arts Celebrities Journal, October 27th, 2004 The Stage, June 2004 It is to do with trust and communication, as much as it is with inherent musicality. There is a reason for her to be here and it is not just to sound pretty. In other words, she is communicating not just sound but spirit. It is what the great artists always do and you notice it even more potently live than you do from a studio recording. For now there is no tweaking of dials, but raw, unbridled passion. And in a programme of torch songs new and old, she sets the place aflame. (Mark Shenton.) Cabaret Scenes, New York, June 04 Theatre Mania, New York June 04 Distinctive, daring, and dangerous, Jungr seems lit by an inner fire. You can see it burning in her eyes; she's blessed with a great face for acting and she knows how to use it. She's so good at both singing and patter that you're happy to see her on stage no matter what she's doing. Jungr is one of those rare types with a spectacularly rich and rangy voice as well as a mesmerizing personality. You'll want the CD no matter what but you'll treasure it more once you've seen and heard Jungr live. (Barbara and Scott Siegel) Showbusiness, USA March 2004 London Herald Monthly, April 2004 The Observer, Sunday 21, 2003 The New Statesman, December 2003 Jazz At Ronnie Scotts November 2003 Reviews Every Grain Of Sand The Village Voice, New York, June 2003 The Times, !6 August 2003 Backstage, New York, September 2002. The New York Times Jan. 22.03 The Telegraph, December 2002 Variety, New York, October 2002 The Sunday Times, April 2002 Sunday Telegraph What's On In London, February 2001 Boz Magazine, February 2001 |
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