Rating:
Genre:
Vocal Music
Release Date: 01/24/2006
Female, and not a few male, singers have long delighted in the witty, intimate lyrics of
Dorothy Fields, who wrote primarily for Broadway and Hollywood from the 1920s to the 1970s, producing numerous
standards. Since
Fields was so good at writing songs about the war between the sexes (including her efforts for
Fred Astaire and
Ginger Rogers in the film
Swing Time), it is only appropriate that
K.T. Sullivan awards co-billing to her piano accompanist
Mark Nadler on this collection of
Fields songs, not only duetting with him on several selections, but also letting him sing solo on four. Some of these songs are so familiar (
"I Can't Give You Anything But Love," "I'm in the Mood for Love," "On the Sunny Side of the Street") that they have to be reimagined to be made fresh, and
Sullivan and
Nadler have been bold in bringing them back to life. In particular,
Nadler combines
"I'm in the Mood for Love" with the rhythm number
"Digga Digga Doo" in order to find a new way to interpret it, and he's largely successful, even if he alters the mood considerably. Combining songs in medleys is
Sullivan and
Nadler's main method of reinterpretation here, and they sometimes find new meanings in the juxtapositions that result, notably the complicated mixture of
"There Must Be Something Better Than Love," "Love Is the Reason," "I'd Rather Wake Up by Myself," and
"He Had Refinement," and the back-and-forth treatment of
"Growing Pains" and
"Baby, Dream Your Dream." It is some measure of their ability that they manage to overcome the sometimes seemingly definitive versions of these songs performed earlier by others. For example, their duet on
"A Fine Romance," with some inventively rearranged phrasing, manages not to draw upon the famous film rendition by
Astaire and
Rogers, and
Nadler gives a new treatment to
"Growing Pains" that owes nothing to
Tony Bennett. The result is an album that celebrates
Dorothy Fields as a writer whose sense of human nature and the interpersonal relations of lovers is timeless.
~William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
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