Pictured: Lilias White
It was fitting that legendary film composer, Dave Grusin performed an impromptu, improvised solo piano rendition of “Happy Birthday” in the middle of the star-studded event at The Broad Stage to celebrate the life and legacy of three-time Oscar winning lyricist Alan Bergman, who passed away in July at 99. Originally planned as a centennial celebration, the two-hour show became a wonderful, often intimate yet delightfully swinging and sometimes even rockin’ and bluesy, memorial tribute concert.
Typical of paying homage to an artist who gives so much to the world and lives a long, impactful life, there was no sorrow, only celebration, and with each performance of Alan’s clever wordplay in song (most written with Marilyn, his late wife and partner of 63 years), the few hundred or so in the auditorium felt his loving presence.
There were some sweet, funny anecdotes at the beginning and along the way by host Paul Reiser as well as heartfelt video tributes by Pat Metheny and Barbra Streisand (whose “The Way We Were” and the whole Yentl soundtrack were among their collaborations). But the show was mostly one great performance after another, from extremely familiar hits to incredible obscurities that probably inspired a lot of Googling later at home.
Among the better-known tunes, the highlights were Patti Austin and Streisand’s son Jason Gould’s sparkling and soaring “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?”, a stellar “It Might Be You” from Tootsie (by Austin with Grusin and Lee Ritenour), Tierney Sutton’s emotional “The Way We Were” and Michael Feinstein’s whimsical swing through the Bergmans’ first hit “Nice N’ Easy” (recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1961).
The ones that were less immediately singable were no less priceless, all but begging us to listen to every exquisite word since we likely didn’t’ know them already.
These included contemporary crooner (among other things TV and film-wise) Seth MacFarlane singing the newish, never recorded “The Love of Your Life” after the charming early love letter from Alan to Marilyn “That Face”; Michael Feinstein’s heartbreaking rendition of “Where Do You Start”; soul singer Aloe Blacc’s “Love Makes the Changes” a few performances after his stirring spin on Ray Charles’ classic Quincy Jones-composed theme from In The Heat of the Night;
Sutton performing a mashup of two hipster Sergio Mendes tunes from the mid-60s, “Like a Lover/So Many Stars”; and Shelea’s towering one two punch of the patriotic “We The People” and, saving, one of the best for last, a breathtaking spin on “A Piece of Sky” from Yentl (music by Michel Legrand), that practically put us on the boat with Streisand heading to America at the end of the film. Bringing equal amounts of sass and class, veteran Broadway performer Lilias White sang the you know what out of “Fifty Percent” and “He’s Cool.”
Beyond the jazz luminaries, pop-rock (or is it Yacht rock) legends Jackson Browne and Kenny Loggins were on hand for a single song each, with Browne decidedly NOT running on empty for a heartfelt version of “What Matters Most” and Loggins footloosing with young singer Hunter Hawkins on a dynamic duet of his peppy mid-70’s romp “I Believe In Love,” a song he co-wrote with Bergman that he recorded and which Streisand sang in her version of A Star is Born.
Folks who love 70s sitcoms should know that the Bergmans wrote the lyrics to two classic shows of the era, Good Times and Maude (to music by Grusin!). While nobody performed these, they compensated by having musical director Trey Henry rap/recite the clever twist on the Adam and Eve story (“Genesis Revisited”) that was the theme song for the short-lived Norman Lear sitcom All That Glitters.
Alan Bergman himself kicked off the show with a tender, graceful rendition of “The Windmills of Your Mind” set to a heartwarming montage of photos on a video screen from Alan and Marilyn’s home life, career and collaborations. They truly had a wonderful life and made our lives more wonderful with every word they shared.
Henry assembled an amazing group of musicians for the evening that included Mitch Forman, Peter Erskine, Greg Phillinganes, Bob Sheppard, Bill Cantos, Jason Crosby, Serge Merlaud, Tamir Hendelman, Shelly Berg, and David Finck.
