"What Matters Most"

This should be Part Two. But not really. Why? Because it's about Barbra Streisand, who I wrote about last time. But there's a difference. Last time I reviewed her MusiCares performance on Starbucks Digital Network. I hadn't heard her new album "What Matters Most." But now I have, and her studio recording reflects a new maturity and subtlety that Streisand hasn't achieved before. Most singers nearing seventy have long ago noticed their singing voices beginning to crack and wobble, failing to reach to reach and hold notes they previously had no trouble with. Barbra's voice has aged, but in a totally different way than most singers experience.

In her youth, before "Yentl", Streisand's singing voice had so much power that, at times, it lacked the volume control she started using over it beginning with "Yentl." This had alienated some potential fans. With "Yentl", Barbra Streisand hit a new peak. Her voice still soared like it could go on forever. But now her voice had a smoothness and vocal control over all that power, and she used it wonderfully in her "Yentl" songs, ending with her masterpiece, "A Piece of Sky." The last footage shows a bird's eye view of the boat Barbra is singing from moving away, making moviegoers feel like that bird as it's soaring to Barbra's voice for the 18 seconds she holds that note.

Now nearing seventy, Barbra has hit a new high with "What Matters Most." While I doubt she can attain the 18 to 19 second belts she did in the 1980s, she can certainly still do 12, far more than most popular music singers of any age, and her vocal quality and control are intact. Perhaps her avoidance of constant live singing tours throughout her career has saved her voice. But Streisand shows in "What Matters Most" a new subtle maturity that will win her many new fans.

Here's a quick list of the songs, all written by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, who have given Streisand some of her finest music, but which she hadn't recorded previously. "The Windmills of Your Mind" is a reading of a poem, sung as a musical oral interpretation. "Something New In My Life" has a nice intro by the orchestra, and Barbra's vocal clarity and power carries the song to a crescendo of musical purity. "Solitary Moon" is a ballad with a soft jazz beat and is backed by a saxophone that has its own solo spot. A big band sound accompanies Barbra's slow, seductive treatment of Frank Sinatra's standard, "Nice 'N' Easy." "Alone In The World", "So Many Stars", "The Same Hello, The Same Goodbye", and "That Face" round out most of the rest of an excellent album.

But there's a couple more. I mentioned in my previous piece that "I'll Never Say Goodbye", which she sang in her Starbucks concert, was a favorite there. Add to that the title track, which I first heard as the theme music for the 1979 movie remake of "The Champ", Wallace Beery's 1931 classic. I thought it was wonderful music then, and the Bergman lyrics Barbra sings in "What Matters Most" make it doubly so. Especially with lines like "It's not the springs we've seen, but all the shades of green."