Roots: My Life, My Song : Recorded live in 2009 at Berlin’s Philharmonie

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She's...relaxed on "My Baby Just Cares For Me" and "Stormy Weather", easing open the emotion, rather than forcing it out; and her "Mack The Knife" is superb. — The Independent, 2nd July 2010, 3 out of 5 stars

Release Date: 5th Jul 2010
Catalogue No: 88697642632
Label: Sony
Length: 98 minutes

trad.: African Drum Invocation

Work length2:25

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Steve Johns

Charles H. Gabriel: His Eye Is On The Sparrow

Work length1:45

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman

trad.: I want two wings

Work length2:25

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Martin Williams

trad.: Lord, I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray

Work length3:20

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Mike Lovatt, Martin Williams, Mark Markham

trad.: Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child

Work length4:40

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Ira Coleman

Ellington: Heaven

Work length3:59

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Mark Markham, Steve Johns

Bernstein: Somewhere (from West Side Story)

Work length1:29

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Mike Lovatt, Martin Williams, Ira Coleman, Mark Markham, Steve Johns

Walter Donaldson, Gus Kahn: My Baby Just Cares for Me

Work length3:22

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Mike Lovatt, Martin Williams, Ira Coleman, Mark Markham, Steve Johns

Arlen: Stormy Weather

Work length5:01

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Martin Williams, Ira Coleman, Mark Markham, Steve Johns

Weill, K: Moritat von Mackie Messer (from The Threepenny Opera)

Work length6:38

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Martin Williams, Ira Coleman, Mark Markham, Steve Johns

trad.: Another Man Done Gone

Work length4:34

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman

trad.: Pretty Horses

Work length5:07

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Martin Williams, Mark Markham

trad.: God's Gonna Cut You Down

Work length4:56

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Mike Lovatt, Martin Williams, Ira Coleman, Mark Markham, Steve Johns

Poulenc: Les chemins de l'amour

Work length6:28

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Mike Lovatt, Martin Williams, Ira Coleman, Steve Johns, Mark Markham

Scotto, V: J'ai Deux Amours

Work length4:27

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Mike Lovatt, Martin Williams, Ira Coleman, Mark Markham, Steve Johns

Duke, V: April in Paris

Work length4:28

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Mark Markham

Bizet: L'amour est un oiseau rebelle 'Habanera' (from Carmen)

Work length5:31

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Ira Coleman, Mark Markham, Steve Johns

Strayhorn: Take the A Train

Work length3:22

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Mike Lovatt, Martin Williams, Ira Coleman, Mark Markham, Steve Johns

Monk, T: Blue Monk

Work length5:43

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Mike Lovatt, Martin Williams, Ira Coleman, Mark Markham, Steve Johns

Duke Ellington, Irving Mills, Eddie de Lange: Solitude

Work length4:04

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Mark Markham

Ellington: It don't mean a thing (if it ain't got that swing)

Work length6:15

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Mike Lovatt, Martin Williams, Mark Markham, Steve Johns, Ira Coleman

Ellington: Don’t Get Around Much Anymore

Work length2:41

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Mike Lovatt, Martin Williams, Ira Coleman, Mark Markham, Steve Johns

trad.: When The Saints Go Marching In

Work length5:26

$1.30

$1.70

Jessye Norman, Mike Lovatt, Martin Williams, Ira Coleman, Mark Markham, Steve Johns

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About

Sony Classical is proud to release the new album by Jessye Norman, one of the world’s most famous and respected sopranos. For this long-awaited recording she has chosen not to perform arias from the operatic roles that brought her untold triumphs from a very early age in opera houses ranging from La Scala, Milan, to London’s Covent Garden. With Roots: My Life, My Song, Jessye Norman recalls her African-American origins. Alongside gospel songs and numbers from Africa she also performs jazz songs for the first time in her career. “I wanted to sing something that really inspired me. These are songs that have accompanied me all my life, songs by Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and others.”

The album opens with African Drum Invocation, the magical drumbeats of which recall her West African forebears. With famous spirituals and traditional songs such as Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, Jessye Norman turns back the clock to the time when she sang in a gospel choir in her native city of Atlanta, Georgia. With Mack the Knife and My Baby Just Cares For Me, she also pays tribute to great jazz singers, Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone: “They were women of courage, daring and astonishing talent.”

These same qualities have been applied to Jessye Norman, too, of course, ever since she won the ARD Competition in 1968 and was launched on a major operatic career. It is no wonder, then, that audiences and critics alike acclaimed this engaging prima donna, who is completely lacking in a diva’s airs and graces.

In Summer 2010 Jessye Norman will be performing Roots: My Life, My Song at a number of prestigious jazz festivals across Europe, including Montreux in Switzerland and Gijon in Spain, accompanied by a distinguished jazz quintet.

Reviews

2nd July 2010

She's...relaxed on "My Baby Just Cares For Me" and "Stormy Weather", easing open the emotion, rather than forcing it out; and her "Mack The Knife" is superb.

Roots: My Life, My Song

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