"At other times it was illuminating. Walk on By and Anyone Who Had a Heart were both written and recorded during a three-hour studio session with Dionne Warwick. "
This isn't true. Burt and Hal did not write both Walk on By and Anyone Who Had a Heart during that three hour period. They both were recorded during that period, but not written. I mean, get real. Burt had to come in with the arrangements for the musicians. It's ludicrous to think that the music and words were written on the spot and then arranged too. Sometimes writers can get things wrong.
More Burt News from, 'Down Under'
Moderator: mark
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An Enormous BB Fan
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steveo_1965
- Posts: 1023
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vincent.cole
- Posts: 788
- Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2004 12:45 pm
- Location: Staten Island N.Y.
Brisbane
LEGENDARY composer Burt Bacharach was the epitome of old-world charm as he slipped into Brisbane without fanfare last night.
Closely shadowed by his minder, the 79-year-old maestro – dubbed one of the most successful songwriters of the latter 20th century – had a ready grin and a spring in his step as one of the first to depart his flight from Adelaide.
"Would you like a photograph, darling," he said to waiting media.
Bacharach, who's performing with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra at the Convention Centre tonight and tomorrow night, said he hopes to get the chance to take in some of the local sites before he leaves town on Monday.
"I've been to Brisbane before, but I'm sorry I don't remember much about it," he said before being whisked away by his minder. The rest of the composer's entourage, which included his own five-piece band and two-tour managers, were left to catch up at the luggage carousel.
Bacharach, whose hits include Walk On By, I'll Never Fall in Love Again, Do You Know the Way to San Jose and Alfie, is expected to rehearse for the Queensland Orchestra for the first time today.
Queensland Orchestra managing director Michael Smith said it was an honour to bring a musical legend of Bacharach's stature to Brisbane.
"It doesn't happen every day – it's great for the city and great for the orchestra," Mr Smith said.
When Mike met Burt B
IT WAS the night Premier Mike Rann met the man. He went backstage after the Festival Theatre show to chat with legendary songwriter Burt Bacharach.
"Burt was charming," Mike says. "He was very, very complimentary about the ASO, which had only one rehearsal with him.
"We talked about his time with Hal David in the Brill Building, and his time as a young accompanist to Marlene Dietrich, before he had his first hit."
The Premier says the man who wrote such hits as I Say A Little Prayer , Do You Know the Way To San Jose and Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, has fond memories of Australia.
"He remembered coming to Australia in the 1970s and meeting a very tall Prime Minister (Gough Whitlam) who joked with him about writing a new national anthem," he says.
"He said he was a big fan of Peter Allen and thought his song I Still Call Australia Home had become an anthem."
Take care;
Vincent
Vincent
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David_Noble
- Posts: 47
- Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2004 12:18 am
- Location: Sydney, Australia
Here are some more links -
Background notes for the Adelaide Concert -
http://www.aso.com.au/documents/Bacharach%20Burt07.pdf
Some more information about the concert in the State Thatre in Sydney that was filmed for TV. It seems Burt only appears at the end. It will be broadcast "later this year" -
http://www.sso.com.au/page.asp?p=814
And a review of the Perth Concert -
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/st ... 62,00.html
Best of Burt, but can't get enough
Polly Coufos
July 03, 2007
Burt Bacharach
With the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Burswood Theatre, Perth, July 1. Festival Theatre, Adelaide, tomorrow. Tickets: $133-$153. Bookings: 131246. Brisbane Convention Centre, Friday and Saturday. Tickets: $82-$152. Bookings: 132 849. Sydney Opera House, July10-14. Tickets: $50-$160. Bookings: (02) 9250 7777.
LET'S not beat about the bush: Burt Bacharach with a symphony orchestra is a don't-miss event. One of the most successful songwriters of the second half of the 20th century, Bacharach has a spirit-lifting way with a melody and, in front of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, he delivered a 100-minute case for musical immortality.
The master hunched over his piano, conducting and giving cues while playing, has an energy that belies his 79 years. The smile rarely left his face. His five-piece band and three singers are clearly used to performing with orchestra and all components complemented each other. The sound mix was superb.
The arrangements relied heavily on the string section and if there was a slight disappointment that, say, the horns were not used more fully to beef up Any Day Now, that's a minor quibble.
Bacharach sang a few songs, including Wives and Lovers, The Look of Love and Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head.
His voice never matched the greats who have scored hits with his material, but watching him on stage using his very limited range to part-sing, part-speak these love songs for the ages was pure pleasure. Dionne Warwick or Aretha Franklin would have used more notes, but the divas would have struggled to give more emotional readings. Here was a man with his children, tenderly showing them all the love he could muster.
For much of the rest of the night Bacharach could be seen singing along, off mic, as the hits poured out. Don't Make Me Over, Walk On By, I'll Never Fall in Love Again, Do You Know the Way to San Jose and Alfie are just a few of the treasures that were taken from the vault and polished.
This wasn't simply a trip down memory lane, though. Bacharach says he feels compelled to keep writing and performing new music, so the material stretched from the 1960s to his latest album, At This Time. Another song received its first performance last month.
To be frank, Who'll Speak of Love, co-written with Tim Rice, may not make it on to your iPod if you're putting together a Bacharach compilation. But that's only because his oeuvre is already packed with classics.
On Sunday he rattled through more than two dozen much-loved favourites, yet wasn't able to squeeze in Close to You or I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself.
Here's hoping there's a next time to make amends for such oversights.
Background notes for the Adelaide Concert -
http://www.aso.com.au/documents/Bacharach%20Burt07.pdf
Some more information about the concert in the State Thatre in Sydney that was filmed for TV. It seems Burt only appears at the end. It will be broadcast "later this year" -
http://www.sso.com.au/page.asp?p=814
And a review of the Perth Concert -
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/st ... 62,00.html
Best of Burt, but can't get enough
Polly Coufos
July 03, 2007
Burt Bacharach
With the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Burswood Theatre, Perth, July 1. Festival Theatre, Adelaide, tomorrow. Tickets: $133-$153. Bookings: 131246. Brisbane Convention Centre, Friday and Saturday. Tickets: $82-$152. Bookings: 132 849. Sydney Opera House, July10-14. Tickets: $50-$160. Bookings: (02) 9250 7777.
LET'S not beat about the bush: Burt Bacharach with a symphony orchestra is a don't-miss event. One of the most successful songwriters of the second half of the 20th century, Bacharach has a spirit-lifting way with a melody and, in front of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, he delivered a 100-minute case for musical immortality.
The master hunched over his piano, conducting and giving cues while playing, has an energy that belies his 79 years. The smile rarely left his face. His five-piece band and three singers are clearly used to performing with orchestra and all components complemented each other. The sound mix was superb.
The arrangements relied heavily on the string section and if there was a slight disappointment that, say, the horns were not used more fully to beef up Any Day Now, that's a minor quibble.
Bacharach sang a few songs, including Wives and Lovers, The Look of Love and Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head.
His voice never matched the greats who have scored hits with his material, but watching him on stage using his very limited range to part-sing, part-speak these love songs for the ages was pure pleasure. Dionne Warwick or Aretha Franklin would have used more notes, but the divas would have struggled to give more emotional readings. Here was a man with his children, tenderly showing them all the love he could muster.
For much of the rest of the night Bacharach could be seen singing along, off mic, as the hits poured out. Don't Make Me Over, Walk On By, I'll Never Fall in Love Again, Do You Know the Way to San Jose and Alfie are just a few of the treasures that were taken from the vault and polished.
This wasn't simply a trip down memory lane, though. Bacharach says he feels compelled to keep writing and performing new music, so the material stretched from the 1960s to his latest album, At This Time. Another song received its first performance last month.
To be frank, Who'll Speak of Love, co-written with Tim Rice, may not make it on to your iPod if you're putting together a Bacharach compilation. But that's only because his oeuvre is already packed with classics.
On Sunday he rattled through more than two dozen much-loved favourites, yet wasn't able to squeeze in Close to You or I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself.
Here's hoping there's a next time to make amends for such oversights.
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David_Noble
- Posts: 47
- Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2004 12:18 am
- Location: Sydney, Australia
Sydney Review
I was at Burt's concert last night at the Sydney Opera House - it was fantastic. A full house and lots of standing ovations. Burt talked a lot with the audience.
Here is a review of the concert the night before (Tuesday night) -
http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/bachar ... 95014.html
From the Sydney Morning Herald -
Bacharach's brilliance shines through brutal truncations
Bacharach's brilliance shines through brutal truncations
Bernard Zuel
July 12, 2007
Burt Bacharach
Opera House, July 10
Burt Bacharach songs are of such quality that even terrible singers can't destroy them and good singers can't go wrong. At the same time, they are songs served best by singers who may not be perfect but bring something more to their performance than just the brilliantly conceived notes.
The three singers accompanying Bacharach on this tour can hit every note asked of them, can adjust from soul to pop to latinesque, can be as exact as this exacting man demands.
What they don't do is add anything - personality, character, a point of difference - to the songs, which in the end means they begin to subtract from songs whose arrangements speak of not just skill but passion. You can hear singers like this singing songs like this at supper clubs around the world. What do we get from Bacharach in concert that separates it from an upmarket cabaret show?
We get the Sydney Symphony playing arrangements that not only ask more than merely replicating an original guitar or keyboard part but often show subtle but imaginative enhancements to the originals. We get the man himself in his not quite ageless but certainly dapper cool, with a touch of humility not hiding a healthy, and appropriate, ego.
And we get the songs. Some of the finest songs. Thirty-two of them in two hours. From Don't Make Me Over, the first song he and his greatest partner, lyricist Hal David, recorded with their most enduring interpreter, Dionne Warwick, to hip-hop-flavoured, politically pointed songs from his 2005 album At This Time, such as the Bush-baiting Who Are These People? and even an elegant new song co-written with Tim Rice, Who Will Speak For Love?.
Though here again we must compromise with much of the show comprising medleys, sometimes squeezing songs to two lines. I know the arguments: he says if he plays fewer songs, people complain they haven't heard their favourite. As usual an uncomplaining Sydney audience cheerfully took what it was offered, even when genius moments such as Trains and Boats and Planes are truncated but plodders such as That's What Friends Are For are played in full (and none of the career reviving collaborations with Elvis Costello are played at all).
But the strength of Bacharach's greatest songs is that they are not merely a chorus hook with verses attached or a quirky structure and witty line, but are beautifully realised works that if they are worth hearing (and they are) they are worth hearing in full.
It's simply respect. For the songs, the songwriter and the audience.
Burt Bacharach plays at the Opera House tonight, tomorrow night and Saturday
Here is a review of the concert the night before (Tuesday night) -
http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/bachar ... 95014.html
From the Sydney Morning Herald -
Bacharach's brilliance shines through brutal truncations
Bacharach's brilliance shines through brutal truncations
Bernard Zuel
July 12, 2007
Burt Bacharach
Opera House, July 10
Burt Bacharach songs are of such quality that even terrible singers can't destroy them and good singers can't go wrong. At the same time, they are songs served best by singers who may not be perfect but bring something more to their performance than just the brilliantly conceived notes.
The three singers accompanying Bacharach on this tour can hit every note asked of them, can adjust from soul to pop to latinesque, can be as exact as this exacting man demands.
What they don't do is add anything - personality, character, a point of difference - to the songs, which in the end means they begin to subtract from songs whose arrangements speak of not just skill but passion. You can hear singers like this singing songs like this at supper clubs around the world. What do we get from Bacharach in concert that separates it from an upmarket cabaret show?
We get the Sydney Symphony playing arrangements that not only ask more than merely replicating an original guitar or keyboard part but often show subtle but imaginative enhancements to the originals. We get the man himself in his not quite ageless but certainly dapper cool, with a touch of humility not hiding a healthy, and appropriate, ego.
And we get the songs. Some of the finest songs. Thirty-two of them in two hours. From Don't Make Me Over, the first song he and his greatest partner, lyricist Hal David, recorded with their most enduring interpreter, Dionne Warwick, to hip-hop-flavoured, politically pointed songs from his 2005 album At This Time, such as the Bush-baiting Who Are These People? and even an elegant new song co-written with Tim Rice, Who Will Speak For Love?.
Though here again we must compromise with much of the show comprising medleys, sometimes squeezing songs to two lines. I know the arguments: he says if he plays fewer songs, people complain they haven't heard their favourite. As usual an uncomplaining Sydney audience cheerfully took what it was offered, even when genius moments such as Trains and Boats and Planes are truncated but plodders such as That's What Friends Are For are played in full (and none of the career reviving collaborations with Elvis Costello are played at all).
But the strength of Bacharach's greatest songs is that they are not merely a chorus hook with verses attached or a quirky structure and witty line, but are beautifully realised works that if they are worth hearing (and they are) they are worth hearing in full.
It's simply respect. For the songs, the songwriter and the audience.
Burt Bacharach plays at the Opera House tonight, tomorrow night and Saturday
A Night of Emotion at the Sydney Opera House
After seeing one of Burt's shows in Brisbane, on his current tour, I was eagerly anticipating his last two shows in Sydney (13 & 14 Jul), along with friends who are also big fans, and we weren't disappointed. Both shows were fantastic!
I think the music program has been pretty well covered in this forum for his Down Under tour but the last night was high on emotion from Burt.
He commented on how much he had enjoyed himself, and on how nice everyone had been. He said wished he could have done a sixth show in Sydney!
As David said, above, he chatted a lot with the audience. For example he commented on how good he felt the night he recorded 'Walk on By' and 'Anyone Who Had a Heart' with Dionne in the one three-hour session, with all the musicians there at the same time. He compared that with the way recordings are undertaken these days, in layers over several days, preferring the old way - much more electric.
There was a lot of good humour during the show. At the same time, he became very reflective about the state of the world when performing "Where Did it Go" - it's clear he's troubled by what he sees going on. "I don't like watching CNN before I go to bed" he said.
It was such an honest and spontaneous performance.
Unforgettable.
Martyn.
I think the music program has been pretty well covered in this forum for his Down Under tour but the last night was high on emotion from Burt.
He commented on how much he had enjoyed himself, and on how nice everyone had been. He said wished he could have done a sixth show in Sydney!
As David said, above, he chatted a lot with the audience. For example he commented on how good he felt the night he recorded 'Walk on By' and 'Anyone Who Had a Heart' with Dionne in the one three-hour session, with all the musicians there at the same time. He compared that with the way recordings are undertaken these days, in layers over several days, preferring the old way - much more electric.
There was a lot of good humour during the show. At the same time, he became very reflective about the state of the world when performing "Where Did it Go" - it's clear he's troubled by what he sees going on. "I don't like watching CNN before I go to bed" he said.
It was such an honest and spontaneous performance.
Unforgettable.
Martyn.
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vincent.cole
- Posts: 788
- Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2004 12:45 pm
- Location: Staten Island N.Y.
Burt In Auckland New Zealand
Sun breaks through as great composer checks in By PJ TAYLOR
Thursday, 19 July 2007
• Howick and Pakuranga Times
IT was ironic that the sun shone brightly as one of the world’s leading songwriters, legendary United States composer Burt Bacharach, awoke in Auckland yesterday.
The king of songwriters, the man who has created more memorable melody lines than just about anyone, legendary US composer Burt Bacharach, relaxes and reflects on an amazing career. Times photo Wayne Martin.
After the region’s recent mid-winter wild weather, it was fitting that Wednesday was calm, sunny and warm in marking the New Zealand arrival of a man whose music has touched millions worldwide with his emotive, optimistic and soulfully romantic melody lines. In many ways, Bacharach has for five decades provided a musical backdrop to life.
It’s very easy to recall a Bacharach melody line, when considering he has written some of the biggest selling hits, sung by the world’s principle singers such as Aretha Franklin – a leading Bacharach favourite – Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick and Neil Diamond, to mention a few.
Those melody lines are easily remembered when it’s time for a whistle, as he says, popping up in hits such as Rain Drops Keep Fallin’ On My Head, The Look of Love, I’ll Never Fall In Love Again, Do You Know The Way To San Jose, (They Long To Be) Close To You and the anthem of the 1960-1970s peacenik generation, What The World Needs Now Is Love.
During a press conference yesterday afternoon, a very relaxed Bacharach mentioned that Alfie was probably his most complete and favourite composition. But he first admitted that singling-out one song was rather difficult.
He opened the question and answer session saying one of his personal bags had gone astray on the transfer and flight from Sydney to Auckland, but that didn’t seem to worry him. If anything, he was more sympathetic to the person who was to discover that the contents of the bag weren’t the collector’s, but Bacharach’s personal belongings. The bag has been returned.
He also rates highly the Sydney Opera House, where he has just played five nights and is now inspired by the Australian landmark to write new music for larger orchestral settings.
Bacharach spoke at length of his career and mentioned some of his early musical influences, famous US jazz bebop musicians Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, and touring years ago with Elvis Presley and Marlene Dietrich.
Bacharach’s New Zealand visit this year, first scheduled last summer, was delayed by tough personal circumstances. A daughter passed away earlier in the year at the same time he suffered a serious injury while skiing.
As he sat back and fielded questions, Bacharach, dressed in comfortable training clothes and running shoes, spoke freely about coming to terms with his family’s loss, while closing recognising New Zealand’s great pedigree for breeding harness and gallop race horses. The full interview with Burt Bacharach will be available for reading from next week.
Take care;
Vincent
Vincent
Thanks Vincent
Hi Vincent,
Thanks for posting this article. Good to see Burt is well rested after his tour of Australia, and great to see we might be hearing some new orchestral-style music from him.
Martyn.
Thanks for posting this article. Good to see Burt is well rested after his tour of Australia, and great to see we might be hearing some new orchestral-style music from him.
Martyn.
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vincent.cole
- Posts: 788
- Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2004 12:45 pm
- Location: Staten Island N.Y.
Reply Martyn
Bonjour Martyn;Yes it would be great, that Burt would do 'some new orchestral-style music!'
P.S. Martyn, was the Burt Concert in Sidney recorded?
Take care mon ami.
Vincent
Take care;
Vincent
Vincent
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vincent.cole
- Posts: 788
- Joined: Thu Feb 19, 2004 12:45 pm
- Location: Staten Island N.Y.
Burt's New Zealand Review
An Evening With Burt Bacharach at Vector Arena
5:00AM Monday July 23, 2007
By William Dart
Burt Bacharach - more than happy to talk. Photo / Greg Bowker
The Vector Arena may be a barn but, such was the charisma and doggone charm of Burt Bacharach that we felt we had indeed enjoyed two intimate hours with a living legend.
With the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra ("a damn good symphony orchestra", as Bacharach later hailed it), three vocalists and a band of slick LA sidesmen, it was an unmitigated tunefest.
The self-effacing maestro was more than happy to talk. He spieled about taking over his music out of self-defence ("if the songs are going to be ruined let me ruin them myself") and there was the expected, and much appreciated, Bush-bash ("there is no way I could be invited to the White House in the next year and a half" received hearty applause).
While smoothly segued medleys frustrated when your favourite tune floated on by in a few seconds, they did allow for surprises, such as the shapely One Less Bell to Answer or the schlocky Making Love.
The arrangements had high-grade TLC, from the finessed piano obligato in This Guy's in Love with You to the gospel fervour of Any Day Now. The detail behind Anyone Who Had a Heart, Bacharach's self-confessed favourite, made it pure contemporary artsong.
Josie James, Donna Taylor and John Pagano are also the vocalists on Bacharach's 2005 Grammy-winning At This Time album. While never less than musicianly, one's heart went out to the two women having to tackle songs inseparable from the great Dionne Warwick.
Pagano had fewer precedents, ripping into The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance with a real showbiz zing and taking the lead in the most incisive of Bacharach's recent songs, Who Are These People?
Also outstanding was Dennis Wilson's sax taking Wives and Lovers to a storming jazz work-out.
Bacharach's crooning was as infectious as ever, delivering Alfie phrase by phrase, after acknowledging Hal David's brilliant lyrics.
If recent songs indicate the classic days are over, the audience was amply rewarded by a final sing-along through Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head.
Take care;
Vincent
Vincent
Burt's Sydney Concerts
Hi Vincent,
In answer to your question above, I'm not aware that any of the radio or TV networks recorded Burt's Opera House performance, unfortunately.
I'm still keeping a look out for a broadcast date of his show with the Australian Idols at Sydney's State theatre.
Regards,
Martyn.
In answer to your question above, I'm not aware that any of the radio or TV networks recorded Burt's Opera House performance, unfortunately.
I'm still keeping a look out for a broadcast date of his show with the Australian Idols at Sydney's State theatre.
Regards,
Martyn.