A new cast album has come from the Broadway revival of Promises, Promises flies into retail outlets this week. Meanwhile, the musical director of a show playing down the block, Come Fly Away flies in with an instrumental album, Bird Fly By, with only a small nod to Sinatra, but much that soars.

PROMISES, PROMISES
BROADWAY REVIVAL CAST
Masterworks Broadway

"What do you get when you fall in love ..." with the songs from Promises, Promises? If you are an industrious collector, you can find several different recordings of this one-and-only theatre score by pop songwriting team Burt Bacharach and Hal David, a large number of covers of a small number of its individual songs made through the years, and now a brand new cast album from the current revival. The bright, trademark percolating pop energy of the Bacharach music, dazzlingly played, is its greatest asset. Lively and fun with crisp, short phrases, soaring swatches of melody with greater sweep, or the title song with its driving, insistent forcefulness—the trademark Bacharachian blasts are refreshing and, now, nostalgic. Likewise, the lyrics have a spunky sweetness and they have the ease of crafted, colloquial, conversational quality in many cases. The cast's singing doesn't always capture the needed ease and light pop touch recalled from other other versions and encouraged by the Jonathan Tunick orchestrations and brisk, frisky musical direction of Phil Reno. The overture starts things off wonderfully with vigor and zing, like a series of adrenalin shots as we're off and flying.

Sean Hayes acquits himself pretty well in the singing department, but sometimes it seems studied or effortful rather than loose and natural. He appears to be "directed" or musically walking on eggshells in some spots, and other times he is spot on. In the first number, "Half as Big as Life," he cautiously clips the note on the word "life" and the emotion in this song seems a bit muddy. I'm impressed that he isn't cheating vocally a lot to get by on personality. In fact, some natural ebullience seems to be sacrificed to concentrate on notes and vocal production. When he speaks a couple of lines in "She Likes Basketball," it seems almost to be a different guy for a moment. The admirable determination plus the likeability factor he brings to the table gets him through. There's also an innocent sweetness that isn't overplayed, making "Upstairs" a real success, snugly in his comfort zone as the character sings with pride and a reality check about the apartment that's all his own (except when it isn't).

Kristin Chenoweth has some appealing moments, and she and Hayes are a pleasure underplaying their duet "You'll Think of Someone." They also keep a welcome winsomeness and vulnerability, singing separately and together with "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" (which is reprised). You can sense the damage in those "broken up and battered" hearts. In her solo numbers, she at times seems to be having a wrestling match with the material. For example, there's "I Say a Little Prayer," added to the score from the large catalogue of Bacharach/David hits. In part of this rendition, she seems to be trying to belt notes, hang on to them, or wring extra emotion from them while the orchestra is, for quite a while, merrily playing in the breezier style of the arrangement of the familiar Dionne Warwick recording. In other places, cheery Chenoweth is playing her trump card, the "cute" card, even squeaking on the beginning of a line in "Knowing When to Leave." And, perhaps not knowing when to leave well enough alone, she also seems intent in highlighting the variety in this song by singing the different emotions with such different vocal qualities that they stick out in an unbalanced way. "A House Is Not a Home," the other interpolated number, doesn't register as the torchy triumph that might have been intended, but seems whiny and weepy. On a brighter note (not literally), she does better with the reflective but questioning number, "Whoever You Are, I Love You." And the star's most devoted fans will find pleasures with much evidence of her familiar style, vim and go-for-it vocalizing.

The other cast members, with far less to sing than the two leads, don't vocally steal the show out from under them. Tony Goldwyn in "Wanting Things" is, well, wanting of more of a sympathetic stance and ache, but comes off far better with the male bonding with Sean Hayes in the playful "It's Our Little Secret." Attention-grabbing supporting actress Tony winner Katie Finneran's contribution is, alas, small on the cast album as she only appears in one number, "A Fact Can Be a Beautiful Thing." It is by no means a solo, nor does it give her much chance to strut her stuff beyond being coy and plucky. She shares the number with Hayes and a chorus, with an overlong instrumental section, not interestingly orchestrated, which becomes tedious.

The four women billed as "orchestra voices" have just the right deft, free-sounding 1960s sound for the back-ups and the underappreciated song that's a candidate for Christmas classic status. (I'm referring to "Christmas Day," not "Turkey Lurkey Time," although I'll happily admit to delighting in the guilty pleasure of the daffy dance production number led by Megan Sikora, Mayumi Miguel and Cameron Adams. It's another kind of happy holiday gift delivered with panache and great spirit that doesn't just depend on its Christmas spirit. They go for it with goofy glee ..)

The booklet includes all the lyrics, credits, a bunch of full-page or double-page color photos from the production and the briefest of plot synopses (three sentences!). The only presence of Neil Simon's script on the recording is a couple of spoken lines near the very end. And then there's a short "hidden track" where Hayes has a very quick comment to set up an enjoyable bachelor pad-flavored instrumental of "Half as Big as Life." (Another version of the cast album, sold exclusively at Barnes & Noble, also has three karaoke/instrumental tracks.) This Promises, Promises is, for me, a mix of fun and frustrations, but the snazziness still shines.

RUSS KASSOFF, PIANO, and BAND
BIRD FLY BY
RHK Jazz

Like his earlier recent album under his own name, pianist/conductor Russ Kassoff brings a welcome understated touch, modest but masterful, to standards and attractive originals—so much so that one is tempted to nickname him "No-Fuss Russ." His long career has included jazz trio gigs, work with Rita Moreno, Liza Minnelli, Yvonne Constant (in her current cabaret shows of French songs) and Frank Sinatra, whose songs he's focused on these days as Broadway pianist/conductor of the live orchestra augmenting Frank Sinatra's recorded vocals in Come Fly Away with Twyla Tharp's dancers.

This 70-minute instrumental outing is not a tie-in CD, despite the presence of a couple of songs Sinatra recorded and the word "fly" in the album's title song. It's one of four very accessible and easy-flowing originals which have lyrics penned by past collaborator Dierdre Broderick; yes, I said it's an all-instrumental album, and it is, but the words are provided in the packaging anyway. The heartfelt lyrics are direct and unpretentious like the melodies they match, and it's easy enough to sing them in your head because the playing is straightforward before things take jazzier, exploratory turns once established. (Tracks are mostly on the long side, most over four minutes and the title song clocking in at a feather more than six-and-a-half.)

Although they don't ape the personality and tempi or arrangements of them, the two numbers Sinatra recorded, the assertive-but-bouncy piano solo of "River, Stay 'Way from My Door" and the strutting oldie "Yes, Sir, That's My Baby" are nifty numbers with lots of flair and a bit of flash.

Musical theater repertoire, with three songs of different decades, are major highlights here. One is the sprightly, wonderfully building strut of the Schwartz and Dietz "New Sun in the Sky" from the 1931 revue The Band Wagon (being developed for a return to the boards) and heard in the much-later movie of the same name that used some of its songs. On the much gentler side, there are exquisite, wistful "hold your breath" takes on "Edelweiss" from The Sound of Music and a piano solo on Brigadoon's "The Heather on the Hill," tip-toeing their way from and into the heart with delicacy. Perhaps being on Broadway has gotten into Russ's blood, as you might hear a fleeting reference to another show currently on the boards again, West Side Story, in one arrangement.

On some tracks, the leader gives generous spotlight time to his ace bandmates, bassist Jay Anderson and drummer Dennis Mackrel. Two tracks salute the late saxophonist-composer Gerry Niewood, who was a Kassoff colleague and friend. One is an original, "Elegy—Part 1" and the other, the Niewood composition called "Joy." Son Adam Niewood, also a sax man, is on hand for these two tracks and makes a strong impression with talent and skill as well as bringing variety to the sound menu.

The whole album makes a strong, yet at the same time often subtle, impression, inviting repeat plays. I've logged frequent Flyer miles since receiving an early copy.

- Rob Lester

Make sure to check our list of Upcoming Releases.

We are partners with Amazon.com USA. Click on links for purchase information.
We are also partners with CD Universe.