Audra McDonald Happy Songs. (Recordings).(Sound Recording Review)

Audra McDonald

[] "HAPPY SONGS" Songs by Arlen, Rodgers, Berlin, Gershwin, Eaton, Leonhart, LaChiusa et al. Sperling; cond. Nonesuch 79645

Whatever Audra McDonald is--singer, performer, actress, recording star, on a concert platform, Broadway stage, television or film set--it doesn't even have a job description yet. It needs some new kind of label, and she will be the prototype. Happy Songs, her third CD on the Nonesuch label, may be pointing the way, and the way is glorious indeed. Her unconventional and uncategorizable mega-talent has a powerful core, toughened up at the nation's most prestigious and traditionalist conservatory. However she maneuvered those stuffy Juilliard corridors (she once compared classical training to "eating broccoli"), there is no way this gal could have ended up singing Lib or Despina for the rest of her life.

While McDonald's first recording, in 1998--Way Back to Paradise, a brave presentation of unknown songs by contemporary theater composers--was widely and deservedly praised, to me the voice itself sounded hopeful and bland, like a Disney heroine. The next CD, How Glory Goes (2000), loosened up the repertoire with some Harold Arlen standards; what emerged was a much more vigorous and individualized vocalism.

A bunch of Tony awards and plenty of critical acclaim later, Happy Songs is a sassy and confident compilation of pieces primarily from the 1930s and '40s (the Arlen material is still McDonald's strongest suit), in classy, effective arrangements and orchestrations by, among others, Bruce Coughlin and Don Sebesky.

Vocally, McDonald has come to terms with her trained voice, giving the occasional operatic lick (such as the mini-vocalise in "I Must Have That Man") a more natural "pop" feel and even showing off her classical chops in the soaring phrases of Duke Ellington's "On a Turquoise Cloud." Throughout the disc, the singing is fresh, beautiful and expressive, with an appealing all-American, jazz- and blues-tinged sound. But along with first-class singing is the power of McDonald's acting; she lives the text like a great lieder singer, creating a detailed, specific and believable world for four minutes at a time.

From the top, McDonald shows confidence in Arlen and Harburg's 1943 "Ain't It de Truth?" with a purposefully unhurried tempo and a brassy, in-your-face delivery. In another breezy tune, Rodgers and Hart's "I Wish I Were in Love Again" from Babes in Arms (1937), honky-tonk pianists Lee Musiker and ...