Talk about your concept albums!
In celebration of the 150th year anniversary of Johann Brahms’ famed “Lullaby,” the Carnegie Hall Weill Music Institute created the Lullaby Project, which brings various artists interpreting songs by new mothers, pregnant moms and family members. The collection is a fascinating one, surprisingly accessible and wonderfully personal. Vocalists including Dianne Reeves, Angelique Kidjo, Rosanne Cash, Nataline Merchant and even Catherine Zeta-Jones make for a wide ranging collection of moods and sonorities.
Merchant sounds conversant on an old world atmosphere with strings and piano on “Hey Baby Boy” wihle Rhiannon Giddens takes you to the old South on a sassy R&B “My Baby Likes Bacon. Zeta Jones has a warm vibrato on the folksy “Noah” while Gilberto Santa Rosa and Camelia Muniz give a passionate and heartfelt duet on “Mi Nina Bella.” “I Can’t Wait to Meet You” is a poetic piece of bohemia by Fiaona Apple” and everyone gets a chance at a line on the anthem-like gospel of “Dream Big.” A wonderfully musical tribute to moms. Better than flowers!