Bergmans’ Lyrics Strike the Right Note

American popular songs, at their best, can be short stories in a musical setting, often with love--in its many manifestations--as the central topic. But because singers are, after all, singers, the stories sometimes disappear beneath the performance, their relevance subsumed by displays of vocal virtuosity.

Which is a kind of backhanded way of saying that one of the most fulfilling ways to experience a song is to hear it sung by its lyricist, especially if the lyricist is not a professional singer. And when a writer such as Alan Bergman renders one of the affecting sets of words that he has written with his partner and wife, Marilyn Bergman, the results can be amazingly illuminating.

Bergman showed up at the Jazz Bakery Monday night for one of his rare public performances. In an atmosphere that felt like a relaxed evening among friends, he simply sat casually at stage center, accompanied discreetly by pianist Mike Asher and bassist Trey Henry. Reminiscing a bit, telling a few stories about both the craft and the hazards of songwriting, Bergman sang the songs as an extension of his conversation--words with music, stories with melodies.

Aside from a three-song medley (including the marvelously whimsical “It’s Spring, Spring, Spring”) by Johnny Mercer, an early inspiration, the program was completely devoted to Bergman originals, written with, among others, Michel Legrand, Dave Grusin and Marvin Hamlisch. They were delivered in soft-voiced, sung-spoken style, with the story front and center. In the process, the words to such familiar items as “Windmills of Your Mind,” “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?,” “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?,” “The Summer Knows” and “Where Do You Start?” came alive, their smallest, most intimate details revealed.

But Bergman’s performance also made clear that his (and Marilyn’s) most penetrating lyrics have almost always been associated with the finest music. It’s worth noting, for example, that the melodies to four of the five songs listed above were provided by Legrand, the other (“Where Do You Start?”) by Johnny Mandel--two of jazz and pop music’s finest composers.

And that, in a way, brought everything full circle. Good songs are good stories, true, but--like a diamond in a platinum setting--they reveal their qualities most fully when placed within an equally fine musical framework.