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Fumio Yasuda and Theo Bleckmann: Fumio Yasuda and Theo Bleckmann: Las Vegas Rhapsody: The Night They Invented Champagne

By C. Michael Bailey
April 24, 2006
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Fumio Yasuda and Theo Bleckmann: Fumio Yasuda and Theo Bleckmann: Las Vegas Rhapsody: The Night They Invented Champagne

This whimsical sound trip to the heyday of Las Vegas celebrates the city's one hundredth anniversary. German-born and New York-based singer Theo Bleckmann and Japanese pianist/arranger/composer Fumio Yasuda unite with Bernd Ruf and the Kammerorchester Basel to transform carefully chosen selections from the American Songbook into a soundtrack for celebrating the rich decadence and unbridled hedonism of the "new Gomorrah" in all her splendor. These three musical forces come together at an aural tipple point that almost defies description as it is a project much bigger than a collection of old songs.

Theo Bleckmann is best described as a "performance stylist" after ten years in the busy New York nightlife. Boasting a remarkable personage, elegant magnetism and a three-and-a-half octave vocal range, Bleckmann brings to Las Vegas Rhapsody all of prewar Berlin's over-the-top creativity and delicious intemperance. He does this against the sumptuous backdrop of Fumio Yasuda's lushly elegant orchestrations. Fumio Yasuda was born in 1953 in Tokyo. He began composing at age seventeen and graduated from Kunitachi College of Music as a Composition major.

For Rhapsody Yasuda arranges the music for both full orchestra with strings and small ensemble. The disc is book-ended by Bleckmann and Yasuda's "Las Vegas Rhapsody," decked out in black-tie musical regalia. The Rhapsody shares the large ensemble format with brightly-lit interpretations of "The Night They Invented Champagne" and "A Gal in Calico" and velvety thoughts of the vocal-ensemble "Teacher's Pet" and "True Love."

Smaller confines are used for "You Make Me Feel So Young" (voice and piano) and a shoot-the-moon "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," reducing to a single instrument, the marimbaphone, for the bubbly "You Go to My Head." Bleckmann's vibratoless voice floats above the percussive steps like, wellâ

Track Listing

Las Vegas Rhapsody, Prologue; Out Of My Dreams; The Night They Invented Champagne; Teacher's Pet; True Love; You Make Me Feel So Young; Chim Chim Cheree; A Gal In Calico; You Go To My Head; Smoke Gets In Your Eyes; We Kiss In A Shadow; Button Up Your Overcoat; I've Got A Gal In Kalamazoo; Luck Be A Lady; My Favorite Things; Las Vegas Rhapsody, Epilogue.

Personnel

Theo Bleckmann

vocals

Theo Bleckmann: vocals; Fumio Yasuda: orchestration, piano; Kammerorchester Basel, Bernd Ruf: conductor.

Album information

Title: Fumio Yasuda and Theo Bleckmann: Las Vegas Rhapsody: The Night They Invented Champagne | Year Released: 2006 | Record Label: Winter & Winter

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About Theo Bleckmann

Instrument: Vocals

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