A
New American Pop Master
by Everett Evans, The Houston Chronical
There’s no way of knowing which direction contemporary
adult pop will take – but it couldn’t do better
than to follow the shining path being forged by songwriter
John Bucchino.
Bucchino merges the artfulness and sophistication of America’s
master songwriters (Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter,
George Gershwin) with the contemporay style and plaintive
folk quality of of the top singer/songwriters who emerged
in the 1970s, such as Carole King and James Taylor.
During the past decade, Bucchino has built a reputation in
New York’s Cabaret scene, acquiring a fan club of artists
who appreciate his rich material. Grateful assembles 16 top
artists from pop (Judy Collins, Art Garfunkel), cabaret (Andrea
Marcovicci, David Campbell) and Broadway (Patti LuPone, Liza
Minelli), with the composer at the keyboard, for a persuasive
showcase of his work.
Virtually every track is exceptional. Bucchino matches lovely
yet unexpected melodic lines with terse, meaningful lyrics.
Intelligent and deeply felt, his songs capture universal emotions,
often with a startling honesty and originality of expression.
Michael Feinstein brings a fine, controlled feeling to the
title track, a heartfelt song of gratitude for life’s
blessings – indeed, a conscious nod back to Berlin’s
Count Your Blessings, yet more complex in mood.
Collins does lovely work on the wistful Sweet Dreams, about
two lost souls fleeing bad lives, who meet in a bus station
on the road to California. Minnelli and Billy Stritch bring
infectious joy to the bubbly That Smile. Jimmy Webb projects
the subtle irony of A Powerful Man. Campbell’s voice
soars in the inspirational Better Than I. Marcovicci shrewdly
underplays Sepia Life, the narrative of “a Southern
belle arranging her first affair,” deftly shaped as
a Eudora Welty story.
Fellow composer Adam Guettel mines all the aching beauty from
Unexpressed, about love yearning for an outlet.
Temporary epitomizes Bucchino’s gift, crystallizing
a complex theme so perfectly that it gives you goosebumps.
Lois Sage sings it radiantly, a mother explaining to her child
that “Everything is temporary/A friend moves, a tooth
aches/A pet dies, a toy breaks/The detours a life takes/Temporary.”
Kristin Chenoweth closes the program with a glowing This Moment,
encapsulating Bucchino’s “seize the day”
message.
Grateful introduces a distinctive songwriting voice, one whose
songs add up to a personal philosophy that is humane and ennobling.
Grade: A
Grateful—The
Songs of John Bucchino
By David Hurst, Theatermania.com
In
his liner notes for Grateful—The Songs of John Bucchino,
composer/ lyricist Stephen Schwartz writes about the first
time he heard Bucchino’s music some years ago. He was
driving home after a benefit and had to pull his car over
to the side of the road to listen, “astounded by the
musical imagination, lyric invention and keyboard artistry”
he was hearing. With the release of Grateful by RCA Victor,
there will undoubtedly be many cars found idling on shoulders
across the country. This is an extraordinary collection of
songs performed by an impressive line-up of guest artists—a
CD which those who crave well-crafted melodies and emotionally
penetrating lyrics will definitely want to add to their collection.
Alternately humorous, insightful, introspective, and sardonic,
Bucchino’s work is immediately accessible and lingers
in one’s memory days after hearing it. The marriage
of singer and song has rarely been more perfectly achieved
than it is here. The disc begins with the title song, rendered
with understated joy by Michael Feinstein. Previously sung
beautifully by both David Campbell and Brian Lane Green on
their solo CDs, “Grateful” is a singer’s
dream for its soaring melody and profound lyrics; Feinstein
sings it with subtlety and depth in his ever-improving lyric
baritone. Judy Collins wraps her distinctive voice around
“Sweet Dreams”— the story of two lost souls
who meet momentarily—to haunting effect. Liza Minnelli
and Billy Stritch have some delicious fun with “That
Smile.” And Daisy Prince sings a heartfelt “It
Feels Like Home” (the love song for which the late Nancy
LaMott’s rendition remains definitive). As the disc
continues, Jimmy Webb tells a tale of selling out in “A
Powerful Man,” Adam Guettel sings of feelings “Unexpressed,”
and Lois Sage attempts to console a child in “Temporary”—one
of three songs (along with “Grateful”)from Bucchino’s
musical Urban Myths that will make you yearn to hear the entire
score. Patti LuPone sounds dreamily relaxed and, dare I say,
girlish in “Dancing” (from the musical Lavender
Girl). Art Garfunkel should be required to record an entire
CD of Bucchino’s music based on his heartbreaking rendition
of “If I Ever Say I’m Over You.” Andrea
Marcovicci, Amanda McBroom, Ann Hampton Callaway , Bucchino
himself, Brian Lane Green, and David Campbell (singing “Better
Than I” from Bucchino’s score for Joseph, King
of Dreams DreamWorks’ direct-to-video sequel to The
Prince of Egypt) all hit the mark with their respective contributions.
And the best truly is saved for last: Kristin Chenoweth’s
stunning rendition of “This Moment.” Bucchino’s
gift for simple, direct verbal and musical communication is
apparent in this ballad, which allow Chenoweth’s classically
trained voice to take off. A gifted songwriter on the level
of James Taylor, Paul Simon, or Joni Mitchell, John Bucchino
has indeed been a “well-kept secret” in the world
of New York cabaret and theater for several years. With the
release of Grateful, the time has come to share his songs
with the world. After all, some secrets really are too good
to keep.
Sing
a song of John Bucchino...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel
The
New York City Fire Department should have an ordinance against
the gathering of two or more megastars at one time in order
to prevent spontaneous combustion. If there were such a law,
it would have been broken big time last Sunday night at the
FireBird Café on West 46th Street. You should have
seen the explosion of talent! On hand were such icons as Judy
Collins and Art Garfunkel — and they were just the icing
on a rich, star-studded musical cake served up to honor the
launch of the CD Grateful: The Songs of John Bucchino. And
the stars weren’t all gathered there just for a photo
op; they had come to sing Bucchino’s wonderful tunes,
just as they had recorded them for his CD.
The
packed and stacked audience at the FireBird Café for
this extraordinary ASCAP series evening was first treated
to a heartfelt rendition of Bucchino’s best-known song,
“Grateful,” by the composer himself. The crowd
had much to be grateful for as Judy Collins next came to the
microphone; “I’m glad I’m singing at the
top of the show because I can see I’m going to be crying
later,” Collins said, and then made the audience misty
as she sang Bucchino's haunting “Sweet Dreams.”
Billy Stritch caused a wave of sympathetic laughter when he
joked about having to follow
Collins. He needed the sympathy, as he had to rely heavily
on a cheat sheet to sing the bouncy “That Smile”
in the absence of his duet partner on the album, Liza Minnelli.
The
highpoint of the evening was Art Garfunkel’s performance
of “If I Ever Say I’m Over You.” Forget
for the moment that it’s an achingly beautiful love
song, and picture Bucchino’s proud mother and father
sitting just to our right, with mom audibly weeping and dad
choking back sobs. Even more moving, if possible, was the
reaction of composer Stephen Schwartz. A mentor to Bucchino,
Schwartz was visibly transported by Garfunkel’s performance,
and by “In a Restaurant by the Sea” and “Better
Than I” as sung by Ann Hampton Callaway and Brian Lane
Green, respectively. And so it went throughout the evening.
Special kudos to Bucchino for including Lois Sage in this
celebrity evening — not only for his loyalty to a non-celebrity
singer who first performed his work almost 20 years ago, but
because Sage actually sang with more heart than anyone else
on that stage. (She, too, is on the CD.) The accumulation
of so much talent in one room turned Bucchino’s night
at the FireBird into something very special. It was a helluva
launch for a CD, and anyone who gets his hands on this disc
will be “Grateful” indeed.
An
appropriate time to be "Grateful"
Online Review from a listener:
Rating: (5 of 5)
Before
the world changed on September 11, the songs of John Bucchino
offered us a moment of reflection in our crazy lives. Now,
I believe they offer inspiration. After seeing the horror
in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania and feeling
the terror of the last three months, how could we not simply
be "Grateful" or hold on to the belief that this
is only "Temporary" or that we can still keep a
sense about us by "Taking the Wheel"? With such
wonderful clarity, Mr. Bucchino points out to us what we still
have with "Feels Like Home" and "Better Than
I".
Besides
simply being brilliant compositions, Mr. Bucchino offers us
something we desperately need now: Hope.
