"Wendy Lands Sings the Music of the Pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman"
(Hip-O)
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Szpilman was a composer and pianist who survived a harsh, nomadic life in Nazi-occupied Poland. He is also the subject of the book and the Roman Polanski film "The Pianist". After he died in Warsaw in July 2000, his son Andrzej Szpilman, with help from producer/ arranger John Leftwich, hired a team of musicians and songwriters to write lyrics to some of his father's more luscious and spry pop compositions. Andrzej then selected Montreal singer from a field of more than two dozen vocalists to perform the 12 songs on this record.
Lands brought years of stage and music experience to the Szpilman project, including a stint as a soloist in the original cast of "The Music Of Andrew Lloyd Webber".
She is slightly more than a show-tune crooner. Part indie-pop singer, like Edie Brickell or Leigh Nash (Sixpence None the Richer), part lounge-jazz vocalist, like Norah Jones, Lands handles Szpilman's uptown melodies suitably, forgoing histrionics for subtlety and understatement. Leftwich too, applies his touches carefully, embroidering each song with discrete, acoustic elegance (violin, acoustic bass, lap steel).
There's not much dynamism to weather (or enjoy): The mood remains balmy (sometimes innocuous) throughout - a lot like Jones' blockbuster "Come Away With Me", which could portend good things for this album.

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Timothy Finn / The Star