The iconoclastic British singer Barb Jungr returns to New York for the US premiere of "Bob, Brel and Me," her latest live-show-and-recording project, in an exclusive two-night engagement at Joe's Pub in February. Jungr performs songs from her new album, which released in the UK in September to sterling reviews, on Friday and Saturday February 14 & 15, both at 7pm. With Mark Hartman on piano, this is Jungr's first Joe's Pub appearance since July 2018. She began appearing at the club in 2003.
In "Bob Brel and Me," Jungr is as intimate, raw and funny as ever. With her trademark mix of lyricism and grit, she aims to understand how we connect sexually and spiritually through a selection of songs she has not sung before from two of the most penetrating male singer-songwriters of the last 70 years - Jungr favorites
Bob Dylan and
Jacques Brel (in new translations by Robb Johnson). To this Jungr audaciously adds several of her own songs, setting up an interesting three-way encounter matching wits across gender and time.
Best-known for her eye-opening deconstructions of songs by American rockers, the indie chanteuse has been attracting growing international attention for boldly adding new names to the Great American Songbook, names like
Bruce Springsteen,
Leonard Cohen,
David Byrne,
Neil Diamond,
Hank Williams and
Elvis Presley... and Dylan of course. In her stripping down process these songwriters -- rarely heard in jazz and cabaret rooms - are relieved of their recorded accoutrements and laid bare. Calling her process "revelatory,"
Stephen Holden of The New York Times said she interprets their work "with a ferocity and truthfulness that demolishes every cover version you've ever heard."
The "Bob, Brel and Me" recording features a number of top-tier, London-based jazz artists, including Jenny Carr (piano and accordion); Jamie Safir (piano and organ); David Mantovani (double bass); Rod Youngs (drums); Mark Lockheart (sax), Pete Horsfall (trumpet), and Gabriella Swallow (cello).
Among the Dylan tunes in the project are "Tambourine Man;" "This Wheel's on Fire;" "Buckets of Rain," and "A Simple Twist of Fate." The Brel songs -- with new, approved translations by Robb Johnson -- include "Jacky," "The Cathedral," and "If Only We Had Love," which is amplified by The Fourth Choir, London's celebrated LGBTQ+ ensemble. Jungr's songs are written in collaboration with Mike Lindup, Jonathan Cooper and Jamie Safir. The album's single, released in October, is Jungr's "No-One Could Ever Wear Your Shoes," dedicated to her long-time friend and collaborator, the late Michael Parker.
A fixture in London's alternative cabaret scene beginning in the '70s (notably with The Three Courgettes) Jungr broke into the New York scene beginning in 2007 with a string of acclaimed shows at the Metropolitan Room and The Café Carlyle that earned her Time Out NY's #1 top live cabaret act nods in 2008, 2009, and 2011, chosen by
Adam Feldman.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal
Will Friedwald named her breakout Dylan album, "Every Grain of Sand," "the most significant vocal album of the 21st century thus far."
David Finkle in the Village Voice, called her "one of the best interpreters of
Jacques Brel and
Bob Dylan anywhere on this angst-ridden planet."
The US premiere of
Barb Jungr's live show based on her new recording "Bob, Brel and Me" -- a searching and irreverent compendium of love songs by
Bob Dylan,
Jacques Brel and
Barb Jungr - performs on Fri & Sat Feb 14 and 15, both at 7pm, at
Joe's Pub at
The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street (at Astor Place). Tickets are $25, with a two drink or $12 food minimum per person. To order by phone call 212-967-7555 or visit
www.publictheater.org
