The Heart Of It
I Never Dreamed You’d Leave In Summer (3’10”)
Stevie Wonder & Syreeta Wright (Jobeat Music / Black Bull Music)
Arr. Liza Pulman & Joe Atkins, Orchestration Joe Atkins
Recorded at Real World Studios 2019
Producer Chris Porter
Piano – Chris Cameron
Bass – Tom Mark
Drums – Danny Cummings
Sax – Richard Pardy
Trumpet – Steve Walker
Guitar – Andy Taylor-Vebel
Vibes – Teena Lyle
Chris Porter bought this fab Stevie Wonder song to the table when we were working through choices for the album and Joe and I instantly loved it. We’d worked up an arrangement we were pleased with but not excited about so when we hit Real World studios, after a big chat around the dinner table with the band, we decided to discard it. The next morning the brilliant Danny Cummings, who was playing drums with us on the album, came into the control room looking exhausted and said he’d not been able to get the song out of his mind and he thought we should give it another go. Joined by Chris Cameron on keys, we all went into the studio and spent the morning playing around, jamming with ideas and just generally enjoying ourselves. It was one of the most memorable moments of the week and Chris Porter’s absolute genius on this track was to stop me fiddling when we’d finally found it!
Bye Bye Blackbird (5’23”)
Ray Henderson / Mort Dixon (Jerome H Remick)
Arr. Liza Pulman / Joe Stilgoe
Recorded at Real World Studios 2019
Producer Chris Porter
Piano – Joe Stilgoe
Bass – Tony Levin
My sister and I used to sing together in close harmony when we were children. It’s really where I learnt everything about harmony and shape, and this was one of the songs we used to sing. These songs from the 1920’s are in my DNA and I never cease to be amazed by how timeless they are. I knew I wanted to include the verse which is so often overlooked and has the most remarkably beautiful chord progressions. My pianistic skills are limited to say the least, so I brought in the cavalry in the shape of the extraordinary talent that is Joe Stilgoe. I sent him a dodgy voice memo with me fiddling around at the piano to give a sense of structure and feel and then we met at RAK studios and had a wonderfully indulgent time playing around until we found our version. Because I myself am a mixed bag of styles and influences, I decided to shake it up a bit and add Tony Levin’s genius to the track once more and the result is every bit as haunting and as heartbreaking as I’d hoped. At 5.23 it runs as the longest track on the album but I just didn’t have the heart to cut it- I wanted to keep every bit of it for myself.
Come In From The Rain (3’0″)
Melissa Manchester / Carol Bayer Sagar (Hudson Bay Music)
Arr. Liza Pulman / Joe Atkins, Orchestration Joe Atkins
Recorded at Real World Studios 2019
Producer Chris Porter
Piano – Joe Atkins
Bass – Tom Mark
Drums – Danny Cummings
Sax – Richard Pardy
Trumpet – Steve Walker
Guitar – Andy Taylor-Vebel
The arrangement for this song went on quite a journey. It began with me, tinkling at the piano until I found that opening theme. I’ve always loved the intimacy of the lyric-almost as if you’re sitting across the breakfast table with someone, hands around a coffee cup whilst the rain hits the windows outside. The tinkling of that opening theme takes us through the whole song, right up to it’s close but it wasn’t until Joe scored that eerie guitar soundscape at the beginning that it all really made sense. We’d been working towards what felt like the natural build of the “big-finish” but neither of us were feeling comfortable with it. There’s a trio halfway through the second act of Madam Butterfly which is 2 minutes and 9 seconds of structural perfection. It starts small, rises to a peak and then returns back to the small place where it began. I realised that for me, like Butterfly, this song was like being caught on the gentle swell of emotion rather than hit by a massive tidal wave; a hand reaching across the breakfast table only to eventually pull back and pick up that coffee cup again.
My Favorite Year (3’08”)
Michele Brourman / Karen Gottlieb (Columbia Pictures)
Arr. Liza Pulman / Joe Atkins, Orchestration Joe Atkins
Recorded at Real World Studios 2019
Producer Chris Porter
Piano – Chris Cameron
Bass – Tom Mark
Drums – Danny Cummings
Sax – Robert McKay
Trumpet – Steve Walker
Guitar – Andy Taylor-Vebel
For all of us living in the modern world, social media can be a bit of a mixed blessing but for me I will always be grateful to it as it gave me this next song. I first stumbled upon it on Facebook as a friend had posted it on her time-line, reminiscing about going with a girlfriend to see Michael Feinstein in concert. I had never heard the song before and I totally fell in love with its sentiment. When you sing it you feel completely enveloped by its rich harmonies and its beautiful lyrics. It’s a song that somehow seems to totally bypass the brain and take a direct route to the heart.
I‘ve Got A Feeling I’m Falling (2’46”)
Fats Waller / Billy Rose (Santly Brothers Inc)
Arr. Liza Pulman / Joe Atkins, Orchestration Joe Atkins
Recorded at Real World Studios 2019
Producer Chris Porter
Piano – Chris Cameron
Bass – Tom Mark
Drums – Danny Cummings
Sax – Richard Pardy
Trumpet – Steve Walker
Guitar – Andy Taylor-Vebel
For me it all starts with Fats Waller. I was playing his records and destroying his glorious music on the piano from a very early age! I’ve sung this song in so many different ways over the years (usually after a few drinks at a party!) but I wanted to create an arrangement here that captured the utter joy and the sheer life-force of the man. We had such a ball recording this at Real World studios and i think you can totally hear that in the playing. From the flinger clicking (I kept getting told off for laughing) to Steve walker’s amazing trumpet solo in the middle right through to the boys all jamming on the outro. During lockdown I headed to the beach with my niece, her best friend and an iphone and we made a crazy video of me in a big pink dress singing Fats. We got some pretty funny looks I can tell you, but we had a ball. Fats would have been proud!
Some Other Time (3’43”)
Betty Comden & Adolph Green (Warners Brothers Music)
Arr. Liza Pulman & Joe Atkins, Orchestration Joe Atkins
Recorded at Real World Studios 2019
Producer Chris Porter
Piano – Joe Atkins
Bass – Tom Mark
Drums – Danny Cummings
Sax – Richard Pardy
Trumpet – Steve Walker
Guitar – Andy Taylor-Vebel
I was raised on the film of On The Town but it was years before I realised that there was whole beautiful Bernstein world of music that hadn’t been included in the 1949 movie. The wistful and soulful lyrics of Comden & Green are matched by Bernsteins sexy, sexy harmonies. We wanted to create a lazy, late -night feel, almost as if everything is sung on an exhale-the stretch you do just before you go to sleep. We knew we wanted to hear Pardy’s rich sax at the heart of our sound but then the arrangement just built itself up in layers, like a tiramisu, until finally we even had a little Tito Puente moment with the trumpets.
My Father (3’47”)
Judy Collins (Universal Music)
Arr. Liza Pulman & Joe Atkins, Orchestration Joe Atkins
Recorded at Real World Studios 2019
Producer Chris Porter
Piano – Simon Lepper
Bass – Tom Mark
Drums – Danny Cummings
Clarinet – Richard Pardy
Trumpet – Steve Walker
Guitar – Andy Taylor-Vebel
Accordian – Joe Atkins
Once again, like Come In From The Rain, it was finding the introductory theme that really opened this song up for me. The music had sat on my music stand for ages and I kept going to the piano and playing around with patterns of notes until I found the variation that could act as a backdrop for the whole song. Its such a cinematic lyric that i knew I wanted to have the accordion take us to Paris and Joe built upon the leitmotif to create his almost Copeland-esque orchestration, bringing the trumpets in like the epic score of a western. Once it gets going, there’s a pulse to it that makes the whole thing feel like you’re on a crazy ride that you have no control over – you just have to hold on tight until the horses stop.
Unchained Melody (3’40”)
Alex North & Hy Zaret (Unchained Melody Publishing)
Arr. Liza Pulman & Joe Atkins, Orchestration Joe Atkins
Recorded at Real World Studios 2019
Producer Chris Porter
Piano – Joe Atkins
Bass – Tony Levin
Obviously, a song my generation totally identifies with the Righteous Brothers and the 1990’s film Ghost but as a lover of old movies, I was amazed to discover that it had been written by Alex North, composer of so many of the great movies, Spartacus, Streetcar Named Desire and Cleopatra being just a few. I knew I wanted our version to be as simple and as pure as possible, and so we gave it a flowing 12/8 time signature with a piano accompaniment that never seems to stop; Joe’s elegant fingers gliding over the keys. I asked the amazing Tony Levin to put a bass line on it as I wanted that aural space between the high vocal line and the earth-movingly low bass with only the rippling piano between us. Then Chris Porter sprinkled his magic over it and enveloped the whole track with an almost eerie sound. I’d said to him that I wanted to evoke a kind of Eva Cassidy world with this song and he knew exactly what I meant.
I Never Meant To Hurt You (3’04”)
Laura Nyro (Sony/ATV Music
Arr. Liza Pulman & Joe Atkins, Orchestration Joe Atkins
Recorded at Real World Studios 2019
Producer Chris Porter
Piano – Chris Cameron
Bass – Tom Mark
Drums – Danny Cummings
Sax – Richard Pardy
Trumpet – Steve Walker
Guitar – Andy Taylor-Vebel
Written by Laura Nyro in 1967, famously covered by Barbra Streisand, I first fell in love with the song aged 12, when I heard Barbara Cook sing it in concert in London. It was the introspection, the honesty and the vulnerability, coupled with the extraordinary musicianship of this song that had me hooked from the off; no guile or artifice, just pure heartache. This is a new arrangement by myself & Joe Atkins, recorded at Real World Studios and produced by Chris Porter with the wonderful Chris Cameron on keys. I like to think that if this song was a city it would be Laura’s own home-town of New York, with its smokey sidewalks and its lonely bars, and across the whole of our track, Steve Walker’s plaintive trumpet sings whilst Rich Pardy’s heartbroken saxophone cries, fusing together the very different worlds of jazz, folk and blues. Our track is a celebration of a great writer and singer who influenced the influencers but who spurned success and died tragically young.
What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life (2’48”)
Michel Le Grand & Marylin & Alan Bergman (United Artists Music)
Arr. Liza Pulman & Joe Atkins, Orchestration Joe Atkins
Recorded at Real World Studios 2019
Producer Chris Porter
Piano – Simon Lepper
Bass – Tom Mark
Drums – Danny Cummings
Sax – Richard Pardy
Flugelhorn – Steve Walker
Guitar – Andy Taylor-Vebel
I have been singing this song for many years now and it never fails to give me goosebumps.
It’s something to do with those incredibly delicate chromatic notes and the space that Michel LeGrand creates around them. Getting those exposed chromatic intervals feels like a bit of a high wire act, both in performance and in recording, but it’s totally exhilarating. We’d had the pleasure of having Simon Lepper join us in the studio on piano for a couple of the other tracks. He was only with us for the day but we’d finished his recordings and he had a bit of time before his train so I very cheekily asked if he’d fancy doing one more track for us. He’d never played it before but he totally fell in love with it and you can really hear his romantic touch as he caresses those ivories.
If I Only Had A Brain (2’31”)
Harold Arlen & EY Harburg (Leo Feist Inc))
Arr. Liza Pulman & Joe Atkins, Orchestration Joe Atkins
Recorded at Real World Studios 2019
Producer Chris Porter
Bass – Tom Mark
Drums – Danny Cummings
Sax – Richard Pardy
Trumpet – Steve Walker
Guitar – Andy Taylor-Vebel
Accordian – Joe Atkins
The arrangement for this song was the result of a couple of naughty hours when Joe and I rented a studio in Marylebone one summer’s day in 2019. He’d lugged his accordion on the tube with him and it seemed a shame to waste it! We put the song into ¾ and Joe started tinkling on those keys and we knew we’d found our sound; that totally infectious French jazz waltz. The middle section where I get all a bit Cleo laine was originally supposed to be me on Kazoo but I was overruled by….everyone!
When She Loved Me (2’46”)
Randy Newman (Walt Disney Music)
Arr. Liza Pulman & Joe Atkins, Orchestration Joe Atkins
Recorded at Real World Studios 2019
Producer Chris Porter
Piano – Joe Atkins
Bass – Tom Mark
Drums – Danny Cummings
Clarinet – Richard Pardy
Trumpet – Steve Walker
Guitar – Andy Taylor-Vebel
Songs come in and out of your life for all sorts of reasons. In 2005 I was on the Piccadilly line train that was blown up and to this day I still don’t know whether I was I was the luckiest person or the unluckiest person but I emerged pretty unscathed so I guess I’ll take that. What I was left with was an overwhelming feeling of vulnerability and I didn’t really want to get up on a stage and perform. So, I got a job as a receptionist manning the telephones (I think putting people on hold gave me a misguided sense of power) and in the evenings I would come home to my little upright piano and I would sit and play and sing this song to myself-not because it’s a song about being blown up, its not, it’s a Disney song, but because this tiny precious jewel of a song seemed to capture the very essence of how I was feeling, the rawness. A song can do that for you. It was originally scored for cello but we replaced the cello with a flugal horn because nothing gets to your heart quite like that sound, particularly in the masterful hands of Steve Walker.
What’ll I Do (3’12”)
Irving Berlin (Irving Berlin)
Arr. Liza Pulman & Joe Atkins, Orchestration Joe Atkins
Recorded at Real World Studios 2019
Producer Chris Porter
Piano – Joe Atkins
Bass – Tom Mark
Drums – Danny Cummings
Clarinet – Richard Pardy
Trumpet – Steve Walker
Guitar – Andy Taylor-Vebel
I really learnt everything I know about harmony from singing with my mother and my sister on long car journeys and after, my sister and I would go onto form a singing duo, not very originally entitled “The Pulman Sisters”. We used to sit side by side at the piano and sing songs from the 20’s, 30’s & 40’s in close harmony, making music as only siblings can and very often when we weren’t even speaking to each other! We had a pile of music books stacked up our 1920’s Bosendorfer piano and the first book I really remember was a tattered old hand me down of an Irving Berlin book. It only had about 8 songs in it but What’ll I Do was one of them and was the first song we sang together.
How About Me (4’09”)
Irving Berlin (Irving Berlin)
Arr. Liza Pulman & Joe Atkins, Orchestration Joe Atkins
Recorded at Real World Studios 2019
Producer Chris Porter
Piano – Chris Cameron
Bass – Tom Mark
Drums – Danny Cummings
Sax – Richard Pardy
Trumpet – Steve Walker
Guitar – Andy Taylor-Vebel
So many of the songs on this album are heart-breakers of some persuasion or another, but this Irving Berlin song takes it to a whole new level. When we were in the studio recording it, people kept coming in and saying “wow, what a great song, what is it?” and when I said it was written in 1928 they were floored. Although we’ve put our usual new spin on the arrangement, those harmonies are pure Berlin (with maybe just a couple of extra scrunchies thrown in for good measure) and they catch you every time. There have been many poems and lyrics written about the end of a relationship, but the angle Irving Berlin takes here is so brave, so unexpected and yet so devastatingly familiar. There’s a bit of all of our journeys in this song.
Will You Stay Beside Me (Willst Du Bei Mir Blieben) (3’04”)
Max Raabe, Annette Humpe, Christoph Israel (Ambulanz Musikverlag)
Arr. Liza Pulman & Joe Atkins, Orchestration Joe Atkins
Recorded at Real World Studios 2019
Producer Chris Porter
Piano – Simon Lepper
Keyboards – Adam Wakeman
Bass – Tom Mark
Drums – Ian Thomas
Sax – Richard Pardy
Clarinet –
Flugelhorn – Steve Walker
Guitar – Andy Taylor-Vebel
I first fell in love with the German superstar Max Raabe when I was taken as a birthday present by my friend and Fascinating Aida colleague, Adele Anderson, to see him perform live with his Palast Orchester at the Shepherds Bush Empire. As a long-time fan of The Comedian Harmonists (the 1920’s &30’s German close harmony group, from whom Max borrows so respectfully) I was immediately beguiled by his unique voice and his great sense of this golden period. This is music I have grown up with and so to spend an evening in the company of him and his wonderful musicians was the best present I could have been given. As the years have followed, I have bought and worn out every CD he has produced and admire so much his ability to marry the old with the new. On his 2017 album, Der perfekte Moment, he collaborated with German singer/songwriter and record producer, Annette Humpe to produce the achingly beautiful Willst Du Bei Mir Bleiben (Will You Stay Beside Me)
. As I had always harmonised along with this song in the car and in the kitchen, I was thrilled when he agreed to record it with me. Obviously, the heart of this track is the pulsing strings. Our band has no such string section and as I am not a fan of synthesized sounds, we began our journey to find our own arrangement, sans strings! The song has a quite deliberate Schubertian feel to it and that made me think of the wonderful Jacques Loussier, who took all those Bach and Debussy pieces and lent to them his own smokey, Parisian feel. With that in mind we asked the much sought after classical accompanist, Simon Lepper, to join us on keys and the brilliant jazz drummer Ian Thomas to work his magic. It has been a real honour to work on this beautiful song and to join forces with this remarkable singer.