Patricia Kaas - Piano Bar (2002)

Mademoiselle … has always seen herself in the grand tradition of French cabaret stretching back to the Belle Époque, while staking out new territory for herself. This outing is a more deliberate and concentrated effort in that tradition, as well as a return to her roots in clubs and late-night boîtes, and an essay in a much mellower sound that comes off as surprisingly fresh! She has come into her own enough as an artist to be able to record these universally recognized songs with confidence while acknowledging her indebtedness.

_Piano Bar_ is inspired by music in Patricia Kaas's much-publicized film debut _And Now … Ladies and Gentlemen_, where she shares billing with Jeremy Irons, but while not an official soundtrack (as far as I can tell) it does show a couple of stills from the film. The songs are all by French writers, sung in English for the most part (but a couple are in French or both languages), and for some of them the original lyrics are in English. The original language of the song has no connection with the language chosen for the album: "My man" and "I wish you love" and "What now my love" sung in well-known English translations, while "La mer" with an equally popular English version is sung in French, and "The Windmills of your mind" here presented as "Les Moulins de mon caeur," etc. The only rarity is the sultry and alluring "Syracuse," along with the song composed for the film. _Piano Bar_ is decidedly low-key, but a much more daring album than might appear at first. For her first English effort she is not going with the strong sound that's made her an icon, she's going with an idiom where the concentration is going to be on the words and where her deficiencies in English are going to be more exposed, and she's presenting material that is known even to Americans otherwise unfamiliar with French music. … I think this album is a solid success, and in fact I had a more immediate positive reaction than I've had to any album other than _Dans ma chair_. In a way it's going back to her roots: the milieu she conjures up in many of her songs-"Je te dis vous," "L'heure du jazz,"-and here in the theme song "And now … ladies and gentlemen."

The tone is most reminiscent of the mellower side of "Scène de vie" – "Caeuers brisés" and "L'heure du jazz." The arrangements are subtle yet advanced, with flavors of acid jazz ("I wish you love") and hints of hip-hop (remix of "If You Go Away," including sampling sounds). She takes advantage of production enhancements but not obtrusively or to the detriment of the music (even layering her voice in a couple of places, which I haven't heard her do elsewhere). She handles expertly the harmonic modulations on which many of these songs' impact rests. Her English is better than in the past, although in many cases you can hear her shaping a phrase the way it would be with the original French lyrics ("If you go away," "Yesterday when I was young"). In some cases I question the selections: Do "The Summer knows" and particularly "Where do I begin" really have anything to do with the piano bar tradition she says she wants to rehabilitate in the liner note? The French lyrics of "The Windmills of your mind" are fine as a curiosity (Jessye Norman also sings them on her Legrand album _I Was Born in Love with You_) but really not as good as the original English. … "My man" is once again sanitized of the lines about "sometimes he beats me." In fact, only the refrain is used, and the verse elliptically hummed at the beginning except for the line "but I love him"-sort of neat, in a way, eliminating all the verses not just the disturbing one: "yadda, yadda, yadda, but I love him." …

The booklet has several appalling misspellings. Mlle Kaas deserves much better production values!

Highlights are the haunting "If you go away." "Un homme et une femme" will be instantly recognizable as an instrumental movie theme, and I was previously unaware of a vocal life beyond that. "The summer knows" is sensuous and jazzy. The classic "I wish you love" (by Charles Trenet) is decked out in funky modern attire, an improvement on her version on the album Black Coffee (an English-language sortie that was pulled from released). "Autumn Leaves" sounds like Jobim here, very attractive. And "La mer" (again by Trenet) is the epitome of mellow, cool, finger-snapping jazz-not in the exuberant swinging style of Bobby Darin's cover ("Beyond the Sea") but perhaps with an appreciative wink toward it. Several of the songs include a line or a verse delivered (sometimes parlando) in French, which with her natural delivery does not come as an affectation.

The one strike against this album is the inclusion of the Theme from Love Story ("Where do I begin"). It may be of fleeting interest to learn of the French connection, but the song is terminally dreary and though tacked onto a rhythmic bass the rendition adds nothing to the song's appeal or reputation. It's probably crotchety of me to subtract a star from my rating for this, but since in tone it's so close to the rest of the album it doesn't even offend enough to be rejected outright, instead it goes down easy and winds up leaving a sour aftertaste.

If you're looking for My man like Streisand, Love Story like Bassy, La mer like Darrin … yes, you may be disappointed. I didn't miss those particularly, still to me the definitive "Windmills" is Dusty Springfield's inimitable psychedelic version.

Even if you don't love Piano Bar at first listen as I did, it's an album that will grow on you with the right mood and circumstances.

Tracklist
01. My Man (Mon Homme) 04:38
02. If You Go Away (Ne Me Quitte Pas) 05:26
03. What Now My Love (Et Maintenant) 04:58
04. Un Homme Et Une Femme 04:18
05. The Summer Knows (Un Ete 42) 04:53
06. I Wish You Love (Que Rest-T- IDe Nos Amours) 04:57
07. Yesterday When I Was Young (Hier Encore) 04:51
08. Les Moulins De Mon Coeur (The Windmills Of Your Mind) 04:43
09. Autumn Leaves (Les Feuilles Mortes) 05:05
10. Where Do I Begin (Love Story) 04:44
11. Syracuse 04:26
12. La Mer 04:49
13. If You Go Away (Remix) 05:15
14. And Now…Ladies And Gentlemen (Generique) 04:17