Ever since its introduction by Mary Martin in the 1943 musical “One Touch of Venus,” the Kurt Weill-Ogden Nash ballad “Speak Low,” crooned against a softened tango beat, has been synonymous with Olympian seduction. (That goddess-made-flesh Ava Gardner, her voice dubbed, performed it in the movie.)
An investigative rendition of “Speak Low” by the jazz quartet West 73rd, in which the rhythm suggested a heartbeat slowing and quickening as if the song were on the verge of death before being revived, was the most fascinating arrangement of a Weill song in the group’s show at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency on Sunday evening. All the program’s songs are included on the group’s album “A Song About Forever” (CAP).
West 73rd, which includes the singer Hilary Gardner, the pianist Frank Ponzio, the bassist Peter Donovan and the drummer Vito Lesczak, takes songs, mostly from Weill’s American period, that are often treated semi-operatically and turns them into classically informed jazz pieces with swing underpinnings. In several numbers the singer’s traditional role as primary interpreter is matched and even surpassed by the other instruments.
“Speak Low,” begun at a crawl, was put on musical life support as its funereal drumbeat diminished until only the brushes kept it alive. As the pulse gradually slackened before picking up speed, only to diminish again, the music illustrated a life-and-death struggle implied by lyrics that portray erotic love as a race against time. (“The curtain descends, everything ends/Too soon, too soon.”)
An investigative rendition of “Speak Low” by the jazz quartet West 73rd, in which the rhythm suggested a heartbeat slowing and quickening as if the song were on the verge of death before being revived, was the most fascinating arrangement of a Weill song in the group’s show at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency on Sunday evening. All the program’s songs are included on the group’s album “A Song About Forever” (CAP).
West 73rd, which includes the singer Hilary Gardner, the pianist Frank Ponzio, the bassist Peter Donovan and the drummer Vito Lesczak, takes songs, mostly from Weill’s American period, that are often treated semi-operatically and turns them into classically informed jazz pieces with swing underpinnings. In several numbers the singer’s traditional role as primary interpreter is matched and even surpassed by the other instruments.
“Speak Low,” begun at a crawl, was put on musical life support as its funereal drumbeat diminished until only the brushes kept it alive. As the pulse gradually slackened before picking up speed, only to diminish again, the music illustrated a life-and-death struggle implied by lyrics that portray erotic love as a race against time. (“The curtain descends, everything ends/Too soon, too soon.”)
