Search - Liza Minnelli :: Singer: Liza With a Z

DOUBLE MINNELLI CLASSIC~BRAVO LIZA!!!

Bradly Briggs | TOLUCA LAKE, CALIFORNIA | 09/14/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Liza Minnelli's career went into high gear when "Liza With A Z" was aired on television and this great album from that spectacular award-winning special became a big-seller and LiZa concerts to this day are great events to experience!!! "Liza With A Z" needs to be released on DVD as this is a brilliant masterpiece from a legendary talent who delivers on stage with a power and force unlike anyone else!! As recent as August 2004, Liza stunned a sold-out audience in San Diego with a passionate performance that drew numerous standing ovations for classic standards and new athems such as the powerfully sung "What Did I Have That I Don't Have Now" from "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever" which Liza completely turned inside out. "Liza With A Z" opens with the charged and soulfully sung "Yes" and one can tell that this is a really a great singer in magnificent form. Never before has "God Bless The Child" been so masterfully sung and from such deep personal experience in the way that it is sung here and "It Was A Good Time" becomes a haunting and brilliantly sung athem that is stirring and disturbing at the same time. Liza continues in this landmark special with a great mix of rhythm rockers, sophisicated soul, torchy blues, then ends this legendary event with a superbly sung medley from "Cabaret" that is so completely stunning that the packed house is out of their seats cheering loudly! Hot off the success of this special plus an well deserved Best Actress Oscar for "Cabaret", Liza went into the recording studio and made a superb album which should have been a huge success but radio would not play this great work because at that time they would only play "singer/songwriters" therefore this narrow vision kept classic's such as "The Singer" from the general public. Collectors of great vocalists were aware of this great work and personally I wore out several old vinyl copies!!! Opening with a great uptempo rousing version of "I Believe In Music", one can quickly see that Minnelli is in superb form with great arrangements that compliment her soulful delivery which is at its peak. A haunting vocal make "I'd Love You To Want Me" a sensual listening experience while "Oh Babe, What Would You Say?" is a rousing music hall delight that was also thrilling in concert at this time. Liza rocks out with a great take on "You're So Vain" and does an amazing duet with herself on a smoking version of "Where Is The Love?". A haunting original that seems to gets its inspiration from Liza's Mom is "The Singer" which is a magnificent and emotional vocal that should have been a huge hit and would have been if radio would have played it. "The Singer" is a tight arrangement that is very catchy and Liza sings this great song with a great amount of passion that makes it an unforgettable listening experience. A totally awesome vocal turns "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" into a torchy athem and a wildly rhythmic "Dancing In the Moonlight" rocks out with Liza hitting gospel high notes and at her soulful best! Stevie Wonder must have loved Liza's great version of "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life" as Mr. Wonder himself sat in front of me at a Liza concert and was clearly having a great time!!! Smoldering and soulful is the closing "Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me" which is the definitive version as Liza makes this song memorable with her passionate and inspired delivery. Given any airplay at all and this great collection of songs would had numerous "hits" as some thirty years later it still sounds great and many are still listening to it and talking about what a great classic "The Singer" is!!! Do not miss this if you love great singers at their absolute peak!!!!!Is she the singer or the song????? BRAVO LIZA!!!!!!!!!!"