Robert-Allan Arno - myspace.com/TheSoulofVoice
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Quintessential Marilyn & Billy with a Fresh Twist!
It's an especially exciting time this season with the release of Marilyn & Billy's all-new, self-produced interactive CD, a compelling, joyous song cycle of sorts of nothing but classic pop & soul love songs strategically selected to travel the "many phases" of an enduring love relationship. This project partnered with the dynamic duo's select tour celebrating their 40 years in the biz proves to be another historic chapter on the Marilyn & Billy journey. I visited with the forever youthful couple during their acclaimed three week "gig" at the posh Cafe Carlyle here in NYC in May, and what struck me about Marilyn & Billy's take on their new CD was how genuinely humble they are about their latest achievement. "We're just blown away by the new technologies!" the two seemed to say simultaneously, referring to the interactive component of the CD...a virtual "at home" with Marilyn & Billy as we get to view them thoughtfully discussing each tune...and just enough to lead into the songs. I mention that we've so come to know the two over the years as such interesting, endearing presences on television, that this aspect of the CD makes perfect sense, to which Marilyn graciously responds, "Wow, we've never thought of it like that!" At the Carlyle concert, it was a breathtaking experience to see the CD's bookend pieces, "You Are So Beautiful" and "How Do You Keep the Music Playing" performed in such an up-close and intimate setting. The latter, an Alan and Marilyn Bergman/Michel Legrand standard is as deeply profound on the recording...it's like feeling the presence of God in the perfectly articulated dialogue between Marilyn & Billy...a spine tingling testimony to their 39 years of marriage. The CD's bonus track, and it's chosen single, "Love All the Hurt Away" is uncanny in that it seems the ideal follow-up to the duo's first mega-watt album (a recent CD re-issue), I HOPE WE GET TO LOVE IN TIME. Considering this was a hit in 1977, it's an amazing feat to have a new tune so seamlessly continue a vocal and musical arrangement sensibility some three decades later. But leave it to Marilyn & Billy to not only keep their vocal chops in pristine condition, but to never rest on their laurels, adding layers of life experience-infused acting chops, too. Other highlights of THE MANY FACES CD include a Smooth Jazz version of "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)," arranger Scott V. Smith taking the Holland-Dozier-Holland groove on an unexpected acoustic guitar-influenced trip that provides Marilyn & Billy the backdrop for a nouveau picnic ("Stoned Soul," of course!). Marilyn once commented to me that she loves when she and Billy can blend their voices to sound "as one" and this concept is clearly evident on the glowingly soulful "(You Are My) Shining Star." Billy's solo on "Try A Little Tenderness" perfectly captures the "live" excitement that only Billy can bring to this type of recording; his state of "effortlessness" is stellar. Marilyn's revision of The Addrisi Brother's romantic standard, "Never My Love"--a top ten "Marilyn vocal solo" for The 5th Dimension in 1971--is not only an homage to The 5th but stunningly surpasses the original in its intensity...yet the Diva's incandescent sensitivity remains. And the duo's savvy rendering of "Just Once" packs a dramatic "telenovela" wallop...as if we're first peaking into the girl's apartment, then the guy's...and then the two re-unite...on the phone, in a cafe...the effect reflects Marilyn & Billy's interpretative creativity.
Always generous in crediting others--including the songwriters, arrangers and top session players on their new project--Marilyn & Billy deserve major kudos for bringing us a new CD from their hearts and executed in a fresh but quintessential Marilyn & Billy style that NEVER goes out of style!
--Robert-Allan Arno, THE SOUL OF THE VOICE; FOREVER 5th DIMENSION
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Andrew Gard
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Talented Pair Returns With Extraordinary Recording
One consistent extraordinary aspect throughout the CD was that, in the vocal performances, I could really feel that Billy and Marilyn meant every single word of the lyrics, honestly and authentically. In my humungous CD collection which numbers well into the thousands, I can only think of a handful of discs of which that's true. At the risk of getting lofty, I believe that art--music and drama in particular--is about communicating an emotional truth between the artist and the audience. By that definition, Marilyn and Billy succeeded brilliantly here.
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