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Annie Kozuch
June 4, 2013
“Mostly Jobim”
Stage 72 – May 29, June 6
Bossa nova music has always ambled gently along the line in the sand between jazz and pop, like some tall, tanned girl sauntering down an Ipanema beach. In his 1979 book The Latin Tinge, music critic John Storm Roberts identified bossa nova as a “fusion of samba and jazz.” He noted that while some critics fret about the “purity” of the Brazil-rooted genre, one of bossa nova’s major proponents—Antonio Carlos Jobim—”used string sections even on his earliest recordings with [João] Gilberto, and always wrote within the ambit of mass-popular music.” So it makes sense that cabaret singers—who often borrow freely from “pure” jazz, even while channeling it into more theatrically expressive and “mainstream” formats—should embrace bossa nova, especially Jobim’s pop-friendly brand.
Perhaps no song of Jobim’s invites more interest from vocal interpreters than the one with which Annie Kozuch opens her Stage 72 show, “Mostly Jobim.” “Waters of March” (“Aguas de Março”) is a singularly entrancing song with a sharp hook that snags listeners and keeps them wanting to hear it again and again. I first encountered the song on a daytime TV talk show in the early 1970s. Who it was that sang it then I don’t recall, but the song’s sharp imagistic poetry (Jobim wrote both Portuguese and English lyrics) and hypnotically rhythmic patterns imprinted themselves instantly on my brain. It was years before I heard the song again, but when I did, I felt as if I had come home. Kozuch’s version owes a lot to the famous recorded duet featuring Elis Regina and Jobim. Kozuch’s somewhat nasal quality (not a bad thing in this case, really) keeps the song from sounding remote and sterile. Kozuch doesn’t go so far, however, as to include all those feral purrs and orgasmic growls that Regina brought to the song.
Kozuch’s show is a launching pad for her CD, also called “Mostly Jobim.” She clearly loves this music, and she’s chosen to include a lot of the biggest Jobim hits. She and her musical director, Frank Ponzio, have wisely found ways to vary the program so as not to invite staleness. Some songs are sung with a more-or-less equal mix of English and Portuguese lyrics, while others favor one or the other of the two languages. Kozuch sings “Desafinado” (lyrics by Newton Mendonça, Jon Hendricks, and the pseudonymous “Jesse Cavanaugh”) at a quick, popping clip. Conversely, she takes “How Insensitive” (“Insensatez”) (lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes and Norman Gimbel) at a languid pace, with only Ponzio’s warm piano accompaniment backing her for much of the song. (The other musicians are terrific, by the way—especially Cecilia Tenconi, who plays both a mellow flute and a tender saxophone.)
One standout number in the show is an emotionally resonant bossa nova rendition of a non-Jobim song, “The Look of Love” (Burt Bacharach, Hal David), a title that does not appear on Kozuch’s CD. Perhaps the most attractive selection of all is Kozuch’s swinging, sassy, and scatty rendition of “Água de Beber” (lyrics by de Moraes), which she performs close to the show’s finish line.
Kozuch creates a candid, informal connection with her listeners that is appealing, although sometimes she seems a little nervously self-conscious, especially in her attempts at humorous offhand patter. But when she’s singing, she comes across as perfectly graceful and fully self-possessed.
Mark Dundas Wood is an arts/entertainment journalist and dramaturg. He began writing reviews for BistroAwards.com in 2011. More recently he has contributed "Cabaret Setlist" articles about cabaret repertoire. Other reviews and articles have appeared in theaterscene.net and clydefitchreport.com, as well as in American Theatre and Back Stage. As a dramaturg, he has worked with New Professional Theatre and the New York Musical Theatre Festival. He is currently literary manager for Broad Horizons Theatre Company.
Bossa nova music has always ambled gently along the line in the sand between jazz and pop, like some tall, tanned girl sauntering down an Ipanema beach. In his 1979 book The Latin Tinge, music critic John Storm Roberts identified bossa nova as a “fusion of samba and jazz.” He noted that while some critics fret about the “purity” of the Brazil-rooted genre, one of bossa nova’s major proponents—Antonio Carlos Jobim—”used string sections even on his earliest recordings with [João] Gilberto, and always wrote within the ambit of mass-popular music.” So it makes sense that cabaret singers—who often borrow freely from “pure” jazz, even while channeling it into more theatrically expressive and “mainstream” formats—should embrace bossa nova, especially Jobim’s pop-friendly brand.