You can take the singer out of Brooklyn but you can’t take Brooklyn out of the singer. Or so this CD/DVD concert set is intended to prove, as Barbra Streisand returns for a one-night-only homecoming at the new Barclays Center. To drive the point home, Streisand, who’s never lost her love for shtick, opens the album with 75 seconds of heavily accented locals commenting on her looks, her voice, her superstardom. She then spends 80 minutes proving how tremendously far she’s traveled while also demonstrating that those travels have brought her full circle.
Though she is the only recording artist to achieve platinum success in six different decades (Sinatra stopped at five), when the history of Streisand’s music career is written, it will surely recognize her earliest days-those landmark Columbia albums from the mid-1960s-and her current, late autumnal days as her finest. The musical renaissance she began with 2009’s Love Is the Answer continues apace, her singular voice remarkably pliant and pure.
She hits all the career buttons, serving up “People,” “The Way We Were,” “Evergreen” and (on the DVD) even “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)” alongside plenty of standards. Chris Botti drops by, and Streisand indulges in a little nepotism, inviting son Jason Gould (impressive in a Josh Grobin-ish way) to join her on “How Deep Is the Ocean.” Sweetest, though, is her heartfelt reworking of “You’re the Top,” in honor of her audience of Brooklynites.
Barbra Streisand: Back to Brooklyn
JazzTimes may earn a small commission if you buy something using one of the retail links in our articles. JazzTimes does not accept money for any editorial recommendations. Read more about our policy here. Thanks for supporting JazzTimes.
