Music Review: Jessye Norman - Roots: My Life, My Song

By Jack Goodstein, BLOGCRITICS.ORG

When an opera diva turns to pop and jazz, she's likely to have mixed results, and dramatic sopranoJessye Norman's 2010 double-CD collection, Roots: My Life, My Song, is no exception. Of the 23 tracks recorded in concert in Munich, Frankfort and Berlin there are some truly remarkable performances, but there are also some that miss the mark.

The repertoire is not solely pop and jazz; included is a nice helping of spirituals, a show tune or two and even a classical piece. In the liner notes, Norman explains she has chosen "music that comprises my personal universe and allows my fellow musicians and me to explore, to expand our own musical language and to pay homage to the icons who created the music that we celebrate and love."

 

This is the "music of her heart," and there is little question that whether she is singing a French cabaret torch song or an upbeat Dixieland standard, she is enjoying herself immensely, and that joy is infectious.

 

Her passionate, swinging version of the traditional "God's Gonna Cut You Down," which closes the first CD to a huge ovation, shows her at her powerful best. The lullaby "Pretty Horses" shows the softer side of her voice and echoes with a simple beauty.Thelonious Monk's "Blue Monk" and Duke Ellington's "Heaven" give her the opportunity to do some interesting scat and vocal improvisations.

On the other hand, her performance of "Mack the Knife" seems mannered and artificial at times. Her voice sounds shrill in moments during "Don't Get Around Much Anymore." She uses "Somewhere" from West Side Story to show off her operatic chops, if only for about a minute and a half.

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