Barbara sings the blues
Billie Holiday — Bessie Smith — Duke Ellington
Barbara Hendricks - Magnus Lindgren Quartet
Magnus Lindgren (saxophone, clarinet, flute), Mathias Algotsson (piano, organ), Fredrik Jonsson (double bass), Jonas Holgersson (drums)
Tracklisting:
1. Lady Sings the Blues
2. Tell Me More and More (And Then Some) (Holiday)
3. Trouble in Mind (Jones)
4. Don't Explain (Holiday, Herzog)
5. My Man (Willemetz, Charles / Yvain)
6. You've Been a Good Old Wagon (Henry)
7. God Bless the Child (Herzog, Holiday)
8. What a Little Moonlight Can Do - instr. (Woods)
9. Billie's Blues - I Love my Man (Holiday)
10. Mood Indigo (Ellington, Mills, Bigard)
11. Downhearted Blues (Austin / Hunter)
12. Allhelgonablues - instr. (Algotsson)
13. Strange Fruit (Allan)
Released 2008.
The first songs Barbara Hendricks sang as a child in her father's church were Negro Spirituals, the folk music of the American slaves who in spite of the limited expression that they were allowed – no dancing or drums – managed to share with one another in song their suffering, joy and hopes for freedom. The spirituals evolved into gospel, blues, jazz and the popular music of today. Lying at the origin of blues is slavery, the tough work in the cotton fields and the songs going with them (the field hollers) in the Southern United States, where the blacks were treated as raw material to be exploited and not as human beings.
On this disc Barbara Hendricks precisely explores the blues. In the blues her voice is like a fine wine. It matures, is enriched with sumptuous colours, roundness and warmth. She sings the blues of women who are weak or strong, worthy women, women who revolt or who are conquered by love, but who are always ready to forgive, ready to love again. In the blues there is suffering but also humour and hope.
Some of the gems found on this album: the swinging You've Been a Good Old Wagon and the very famous Downhearted Blues, two songs of Bessie Smith, the so-called 'Empress of Blues'. One of the great jazz standards, Duke Ellington's Mood Indigo, the original title being none other than... Dreamy Blues. The songs of Billie Holiday include Lady Sings the Blues, Don't Explain, My Man, God Bless the Child and the extraordinary Billie's Blues. The album concludes with Strange Fruit, the first 'protest song', that openly sings of the lynching of blacks; a hard, dramatic and emblematic song of Billie with which Lady Day systematically ended her singing tours.
When listening to Barbara Hendricks singing blues, one finds the same feeling of freedom and fluidity that is in the other repertoire that she sings. Billie, Bessie, Duke... She gives them equal treatment with Mozart, Poulenc or Stravinsky with the same love, with the same respect. The scope of her interpretation and the infinite wealth of her musical expressivity are further enhanced here by the modernity and the imagination of the collaboration with the Magnus Linden Quartet.
This long-awaited CD, with its irresistible swing, is full of inventive touches. It charms and surprises us with its originality.
Recording: Swedish Radio, Studio 3 (Stockholm, Sweden) from 15 to 17 April 2008.
CD Book 60 pages, hard cover
Texts in English and French, with original photos and illustrations
Released 2008.