Various: Next Brel (Barclay)

 |   |  <1 min read

Emiliana Torrini: If You Go Away
Various: Next Brel (Barclay)

The music and lyrics of Jacques Brel (1929-78) have seduced dozens of musicians down the decades, notably Scott Walker, Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, Dusty Springfield . . .

Actually just about anyone who appreciates his melodramatic darkness. Brel wrote and sang of street people, love and loss, was reflective or angry, romantic or satirical. He left a huge body of work for others to pick through.

And people still do: among the big names here (Dusty, Scott, Bowie, Dionne, Nina, Divine Comedy) is Emiliana Torrini, the half-Icelandic/half-Italian singer who has been adopted by a British audience and here takes on the challenge of not only Brel but others such as Dusty Springfield and Nina Simone who covered the Brel classic If You Go Away.

It is an uneven tribute, as most tributes are, but for more on the remarkable Jacques Brel see the tag.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   World Music from Elsewhere articles index

Hossam Ramzy: Rock the Tabla (Arc Music)

Hossam Ramzy: Rock the Tabla (Arc Music)

With the kind of diverse guests only this acclaimed Egyptian percussion player could call on -- jazz drummers Billy Cobham and Manu Katche, A.R. Rahman (aka "the Mozart of Madras",... > Read more

ASIF ALI KHAN INTERVIEWED, SORT OF (2014): The gang's all here

ASIF ALI KHAN INTERVIEWED, SORT OF (2014): The gang's all here

Interviewing Sufi qawwali singer Asif Ali Khan at the recent Womad Taranaki was an experience. Not only does he arrive in the small porta-cabin at the side of one of the stages but so does the... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

NZ EPs by Shani.O

NZ EPs by Shani.O

With so many CDs commanding and demanding attention Elsewhere will run this occasional column by the informed and opinionated Shani.O. She will scoop up some of those many EP releases by New... > Read more

Miles Davis: Kind of Blue (1959)

Miles Davis: Kind of Blue (1959)

Take it from the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Anthony Kiedis. For slow romantic action when he wants to make out, it's the album he plays. Steely Dan's Donald Fagen likes the trance-like atmosphere it... > Read more