Jazz Reviews : Maureen McGovern Takes a New Tack

Maureen McGovern’s appearance in Los Angeles last year was such a state-of-the-art example of contemporary popular singing that it was almost impossible to imagine how it could have been improved upon.

Wisely, and with consummate professionalism, McGovern has decided, for this year’s visit, to do no such thing. Her opening performance at the Studio One Back Lot Thursday night instead took an entirely new direction--a modulation into a new melody rather than a further variation on an already perfect theme.

That she is a singer with an astonishingly versatile instrument is no longer news. Nor is it headline information that she can range from Gershwin to Faure to Mann and Weill with ease. What is continuously fascinating about McGovern is the intelligence and perspective she brings to her performances.

A good half of her current show was devoted to material from “State of the Heart,” her new CBS Records album, and included songs written by her musical director, pianist Jeff Harris and her manager’s wife, Judy Barron specifically for McGovern. Some of the songs were very good indeed--especially “Why Can’t I Forget?” “Bedtime Story” and “Night Flight.” Some were, well, not exactly major challenges for McGovern’s skills.

But she treated them all equally, all superbly, singing them with a density of understanding and emotion rich enough to make a songwriter cry tears of joy.

Pieces that demanded more--a passionately lovely medley of “Long Ago and Far Away” and “All The Things You Are”; Peter Allen’s “I Could Have Been A Sailor”; and a dramatic pirouette through “At The Ballet”--were even better. McGovern was wickedly humorous on a Deanna Durbin/Kathryn Grayson-inspired romp through “By Strauss,” and her velvety-pure coloratura headtones were on spectacular display in Faure’s “Pavanne” and the Gershwins’ whimsical “A Little Jazz Bird.”

Call it a musical feast, a Sunday afternoon picnic on the Seine to contrast with the haute cuisine purity of last year’s concert program. But whatever you do, don’t miss it. Maureen McGovern is one of a kind, as good a singer as we have, and she’s getting better every day. She continues at the Back Lot tonight and Sunday, and Thursday through next April 10, with one show each night at 9 p.m.