Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Lua Hadar with Twist: Like A Bridge

5

Lua Hadar with Twist: Like A Bridge

By

View read count
Lua Hadar with Twist: Like A Bridge
Singer Lua Hadar her band Twist have aptly come up with Like a Bridge, a bold, worldly musical venture with multiple lingual selections and styles. Hadar's grasp of various languages and vernaculars is vast, singing in English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian and Malagasy. What is more impressive is her command of each of the seven dialects' dictions and supple inflections within the musical selections, and her phrasing of each melodic line.

"Bridge over Troubled Water" begins with Larry De La Cruz's warm alto saxophone lines globetrotting over an easy straight-eight pulse, leading to Hadar's entrance. Hadar has a warm voice and likes to end her phrases with a fair amount of vibrato, giving each cut a classic sound. Pianist and musical director Jason Martineau does a great job of creating a solid fabric of jazz-themed, cosmopolitan world music throughout the release, complementing Hadar's voice and linguistics; musically his arrangements are the bridge to a cohesive listening experience.

An interesting funk version of "San Francisco," with Hadar singing in French, is a nice romantic twist to this classic, well-known melody. Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Imagina," is a conveyed as a waltz sung in Portuguese, its wide vocal range usually covered with a male-female duet. Here, however Lua's duet is with renowned cellist Emil Miland, further taking this delightful release to a place of musical twist. Hadar's vocal style on this selection is slightly more operatic, with a faster vibrato, but she navigates the wide-ranging melody with confidence.

All in all, Like a Bridge is appositely titled-a bridge of musical delight that makes a truly global journey, introducing sounds from across the beautiful palette of diversity.

Track Listing

Bridge Over Troubled Water; Beyond the Sea/La Mer (French); Raha Mbola Misy (Malagasy);San Francisco (French); Child of Man;Imagina (Portuguese); Sukiyaki/Ue o Muite Aruko (Japanese); jalá Que Llueva Café (Spanish); Isfahan (Instrumental); Stregata dall’Amor/Ravel’s Bolero (Italian).

Personnel

Lua Hadar
vocals

Lua Hadar: vocals; Jason Martineau: piano, musical director; Dan Feiszli: acoustic and electric bass; Celso Alberti: drums; Ian Dogole: udu, cajon, dumbek, shakers; Larry De La Cruz: reeds; Fumiko Ozawa: koto; Emil Miland: cello; Dave Miotke: accordion.

Album information

Title: Like A Bridge | Year Released: 2012 | Record Label: Bellalua Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.