k.d. lang
a.k.a.
Kathryn Dawn Lang
WORLD CLASS A Wonderful World Brings Tony Bennett and k. d. lang Together In Praise of "Pops"
Tony Bennett has recorded before with k. d. lang, but the handful of earlier tracks only gave us a hint of their wonderous vocal rapport. On their superb duet recording, A Wonderful World, lang and Bennett pay tribute to Louis Armstrong by interpreting songs the jazz giant popularized. For lang, it's yet another brilliant surprise in a career woven from the unexpected, which has seen the Canadian vocalist move from countrypolitan kitsch to supper club sensation to pop divadom. Ted Panken spoke with lang about this sparkling collaboration, and the art of singing, the art she has mastered.
Barnes & Noble.com: You were touring a good bit of last summer with Tony Bennett. Was this album made after the tour?
kl: Yes. We toured first. We kind of did it backwards. We were touring together, and then one day at soundcheck, Tony came to me with the idea of an album of all Louis Armstrong love songs that he'd like to do as duets. Of course I was absolutely thrilled, not thinking that it would actually happen. So I'm really blessed.
B&N.com: It sounds like you've been singing together a lot. You breathe together and each of you seems very attuned to what the other is doing. So it seems like "doing it backwards" was a good way to do it.
kl:Yeah, maybe. Although I think there's some sort of kindred spirit between us. I really do. Because the very first thing we did was "Moonglow" for his MTV Unplugged CD thing. I don't know. We just seem to be able to share the same sort of mind frame when we're singing, and we've become very good friends. Singing is really natural for us together. Tony has taught me a lot about singing. He phrases quite differently than I do. So my eyes are glued on his lips. Working with him has really broadened my understanding of singing.
B&N.com: Can you discuss some of the ways in which it has?
kl: There was a type of narrative that was an integral part of that jazz crooning style from the jazz ballad era, and Tony certainly has that. Like I said, they sort of narrate a phrase; they kind of turn a phrase or put a question in. Billie Holiday was so good at that. And, of course, Louis Armstrong was the king of it. But Tony has that, too. And I don't really have that. I'm very languid. I'm more concerned with pitch and tone and length and vibrato. But Tony is very, very narrative, and I've learned a lot [from him] about reading the lyric and delivering it with a type of subtext that I wouldn't necessarily have delivered.
B&N.com: Much of your career has been as a singer-songwriter, singing your own songs and creating your own narratives. How does it differ for you to sing these songs that are an iconic part of American musical culture?
kl: It differs a great deal. Obviously, when you're interpreting music, you have the luxury of all the singers that have touched it before. So you have this vast influence and memory of songs, so that when you apply it, there's more of a freedom now. I don't know, it's kind of so ... familiar. When I sing a song that I've written myself, it's very, very hard to make the transition between the emotional attachment of the songwriter -- to sort of be objective.
B&N.com: Do you mean distancing yourself in a certain way from the material to get closer to it?
kl: Yes -- like, to be able to take it out of the space that you wrote it [in]. Although there's something beautiful about writing it from the purity of the actual emotion that moves you to write it. I think Peggy Lee was really good at the subtext of a lyric. She really understood the humor in it, the irony, the sarcasm, the beauty. I think that's really the singer's job when you're interpreting; whereas, as a songwriter, it's a little more emotional -- a direct emotional reaction.
B&N.com: Do you find that singing this material now is more a "life stage" thing? or just the place where your career has taken you? Or is it all part and parcel of the same thing, and do you not make such distinctions?
kl: It's just a natural flow. I'm kind of going where things are laid in front of me. It's a great opportunity to work with Tony. It's unbelievable. But in terms of my life and my career, I see it as really [just] another record in terms of k.d. lang, the singer. Because I really don't see categorization or separation between albums.
B&N.com: You've said that you were aware of Louis Armstrong's importance, but that you didn't fully appreciate his influence until you began studying the music -- which I presume would be for this project. First of all, how much preparation did you do in advance?
kl: I did a lot of listening. And that's basically what I do. When I listened to Louis, I started to sort of understand the importance that he had -- the influence (really, the uncelebrated influence) that he had -- on all popular music. Listening to Tony talk about him, and watching the Ken Burns Jazz special, and listening to all the Louis Armstrong records, it's evident that the man was the cornerstone of American popular music. He really invented swing and that swing "phrasing." Then there's another factor that's maybe even more important to me: the tremendous effect he had in terms of being a black man -- playing the game and, in the long term, winning! Because, at a certain point, he was criticized for being an Uncle Tom, for bowing to the white categorization of black musicians. But in the long run, it was Louis Armstrong who really was in control; and that had a tremendous impact on society in total. To me, "A Wonderful World" is really pertinent and poignant. I mean, you hear [the song] in "Bowling For Columbine," and the effect is earthshaking. The movie is unreal, and Louis Armstrong singing "What A Wonderful World" is in there twice. The poignancy of that -- that it came out during Vietnam, and who Louis was, and how late it was in his career, and how he withstood all sorts of criticism and yet continued to do his thing -- to me that makes his music even deeper.
B&N.com: Did you listen to "jazz singers" or what you described as pop singers from the jazz ballad crooner era?
kl: I didn't get [into] that until I was about 20. I grew up in a really small town [with] one radio station, so my cultural education was rather limited until I started studying music in college. Then the world flew open for me, and I started listening to jazz and diving into Peggy Lee and Carmen McRae and all these amazing singers.
B&N.com: What does the term "jazz singer" mean to you? Does it have a definition?
kl: That's a really, really good question. I think that it changes for me as I get older and as I understand music more. Like I said, there's a difference between someone who sings standards and someone who sings jazz. I think to really be a jazz singer, you have to have a very rhythmic and melodic understanding of what jazz is. Like Ella. Someone who can really, really play with the syncopation of the phrasing and play with the scales. But I don't think that a singer who just does standards necessarily is a jazz singer. I don't consider myself a jazz singer. And I don't want to ever profess to be a jazz singer. I'm just a singer who likes all sorts of music.
B&N.com: Do you see more of this sort of songbook performance for you in the future?
kl: I'm slightly reticent about getting too involved with it. Because as much as I admire and love the classics, I don't think that that's where I want to stay -- because I've always been, as I said, a musical nomad. I definitely will be doing the classics here and there, but I wouldn't concentrate on it.
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