Here It Is: Larry Klein’s Tribute To Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen who died in 2016, has since been memorialized by several tribute concerts, including ones led by his son Adam Cohen in Cohen’s native Montreal and in Sweden led by the duo First Aid Kit (sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg) and their friends. There have been touring museum exhibitions, and post-humous books of fiction and poetry, and documentaries about Leonard and Marianne, and about Cohen’s song Hallelujah.

Leonard Cohen was an old soul. Among the cultural fixtures of the Sixties, he always seemed older and that’s because he was. Leonard Cohen began his musical career in 1967 when he was 33 years old. He was already a published poet and novelist but took to writing songs and then, reluctantly at first, to performing them. But Cohen was blessed with a long career, performing well into his 79^th year. His last years of touring were epic, with concerts often lasting more than three hours and filled with joy. And he continued to release albums of powerful work until his end. His last album, “You Want it Darker” appeared in 2016 two weeks before his death, age 82.

Because Cohen was such a compelling and vivid presence and his songs so mysterious and resonant, his reputation has only strengthened since his death and his loss has felt all the keener. I have found myself on several late nights watching the First Aid Kit tribute “Who By Fire” on YouTube. It is Cohen’s music that remains the best balm. And I am not alone in feeling so.

This week saw the release of Here It Is: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen, a Larry Klein produced album for Blue Note that features a jazz ensemble interpreting new arrangements of 12 Cohen songs, with vocals from a wide range of artists including James Taylor, Norah Jones, Mavis Staples, Nathaniel Rateliff, Luciana Souza and Peter Gabriel.

Klein is an accomplished multi-Grammy winning songwriter, record producer and label executive who has worked with a wide range of artists including Herbie Hancock, Tracy Chapman, Madeleine Peyroux, Walter Becker, Luciana Souza, Melody Gardot, Pink, Seal, numerous albums with Joni Mitchell, Robbie Robertson, Bob Dylan, Don Henley, Warren Zevon, Celine Dion and Leonard Cohen.

Cohen was a friend of Klein’s of long standing. They were bonded in many ways, professionally and on a personal level. “Leonard Cohen had been a friend since 1982 or so, and in the last 15 years of his life, he became a close friend,” Klein says in the album’s press materials. “He was possibly the wisest and funniest friend that I had, and someone that I enjoyed, immensely, in every way. After he passed away, I found myself frequently covering his songs with other artists that I was working with. One reason, of course, is that the songs are so good, but the other reason was that it helped keep him in the air around me.”

Only two jazz albums have won Album of the Year at the Grammys, Stan Getz and Gilberto Jao’s 1965 album that featured The Girl from Ipanema, and Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters in 2008 (Let me amend that: Norah Jones Come Away with Me, and Quincy Jones Back on the Block both winners appear on some lists as jazz albums – just not by me).

Klein produced The Joni Letters and listening to it again just now, it is a beautiful reinterpretation of Mitchell’s work by a Jazz great –it is subtle and lyrical, at times an abstract counterpoint to Mitchell’s own singular compositions. Hancock’s touch, approach, and musical intelligence shines on each track in a way it would be hard for any other artist to match.

Accordingly, Here It Is, chooses not to compete. Instead of one artist, there is a backing band made up of jazz virtuosos such as guitarist Bill Frisell, saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, pianist Kevin Hays, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Nate Smith with additional contributions from Greg Leisz on pedal steel guitar and Larry Goldings on organ. And here the vocal artists amaze and surprise.

Indulge me as I riff on each track:

The album opens with Norah Jones (as The Joni Letters did). Jones performs Steer Your Way – in a haunting searching version where her breathy vocals send Cohen’s lyrics soaring like a voyager heading out to sea. It is a beautiful track, and the band really fills the spaces between her vocals sparely and beautifully, with a lush timbre underneath the sweetness of Jones’ voice. In concert as Cohen’s songs took flight, there was, at moments, the sense, that he was the captain standing on the deck of a spaceship, leading the audience out to the terra incognito of his emotional landscape. Norah Jones delivers all this feeling in her uplifting, yearning version of Steer Your Way, striving, reaching for some greater truth, or greater satisfaction.

Peter Gabriel follows with the title track, Here It Is. In his late performances Cohen conjured a séance of sorts, a night of communion with his audience whom he always called “friends,” in which he was the high priest interceding with the heavens above for the sake of his audience. And as he grew older his voice lowered settling in a deep register in which he had merely to intone his lyrics to sing them. Gabriel mirrors this approach acquitting himself beautifully with a delicate restrained performance that seems like a gift, or as Cohen might have called it, an offering.

Gregory Porter, one of the great jazz vocalists of the moment, delivers a soulful version of Suzanne that hews to its original melodies but allows the jazz artists accompanying him to interpolate and offer their own flights. Porter hits the last syllable of each stanza with a note of vibrato that raises the emotional reach of each verse, thickening his voice on the chorus. There is a beautiful sequence at the end which reminded me musically of the twinkling sparkle accents of Joni Mitchell’s late works (which should come as no surprise as Klein worked with Mitchell on many of her recordings).

Sara McLachlin tackles Hallejuah, turning in a beautiful vocal performance that is measured, heartfelt but restrained and leaves the spiritual lifting to the orchestration. After the many popular versions of this song, by Cohen, by Jeff Buckley, the version of the Shrek soundtrack, it would seem impossible to do a fresh version. Yet it is testament to the power of the song, and of Cohen’s mastery in crafting that, that it remains a vessel for different artists to make their own.

Perhaps the most pure jazz interpretation on the album is saxophonist Immanuel Witkinson’s version of Avalanche. For me, this is one of the album’s strangest choices, because the instrumental of the original is not very developed or, for that matter, recognizable. And so, as performed without lyrics, this Avalanche presents as a fugue state. Yet, on its own, it stands as the track most in the spirit of The Joni Letters by letting a great jazz artist embroider a distinctive interpretation.

Hey That’s No Way To Say Goodbye is performed here by Luciana Souza a brilliant interpreter of Cohen, who has performed several of his songs on her own Klein-produced albums. Here, Souza’s voice is the lead instrument, and her phrasing adds emotion and lyricism in a jazz interpretation colored by a mournful tone reminiscent of the melancholy that often pervaded Cohen compositions. Souza’s singing comes across as if she were exhaling Cohen’s words was playing the keys of a piano, making of the lyrics musical phrases that seem to lift into the ether and dissipate like the smoke from a cigarette.

Coming Back to You -is a beautiful love song that appeared on Cohen’s seventh album Various Positions, which was notable in several respects – Cohen had not released an album in five years, and in the interim, his voice had dropped (and would continue dropping as he aged) and on this album Cohen embraced the lower register. It is also notable because Columbia Records, Cohen’s label, refused to release the album in the U.S., with its label President reportedly saying, “Look, Leonard; we know you’re great, but we don’t know if you’re any good.” This version is sung by James Taylor with a delicate acoustic backing. Here, Taylor drops to a lower register than I have ever heard him sing in and slows his delivery to add emotion to each lyric, turning the song into a memorable and heartfelt love song.

You Want it Darker. If you want it sung deeper, Iggy Pop is the man for the job, his gravelly intonations a great match for one of Cohen’s last and most powerful songs. Pop acquits himself honorably, but I admit feeling a certain strangeness to hearing him intone the Hebrew “Hineni, Hineni” from the song. It’s also noticeable that Cohen’s imprint was so strong that the male singers here tend to adopt Cohen’s own deep-voiced intonation style. There was added power to the original because Cohen was confronting his own death. Here, when Pop says, “I’m ready, my Lord” it’s more of a challenge than an acceptance of fate.

If It Be Your Will. As far as I’m concerned, Mavis Staples can do no wrong. I would listen to her singing a Wikipedia entry. She brings her reverence, her deep Gospel history, the power of her voice to making this song her own. If I don’t go on, it’s because its Mavis Staples! What more needs to be said?

Seems So Long Ago Nancy, is one of Cohen’s saddest songs about a young woman who Cohen knew who committed suicide at 21. David Gray treats this as a tragic folk ballad and sings it with a troubadour’s lilt and sadness, while the jazz accompaniment swirls around his vocals.

Famous Blue Raincoat – Nathaniel Rateliff, who seems to be everywhere these days, delivers a very affecting version of Famous Blue Raincoat, his energy contained, very present in each word and each lyric as if he were the one who wrote it. Rateliff allows us to really dig in deep and appreciate Cohen’s evocative painting/word portrait so redolent of mystery, poetry, and longing. (That night that you planned to go clear. Did you ever go clear? Is that a reference to Scientology in which Cohen dabbled – or does it take on greater meaning over time?). The song ends with a beautiful jazz embroidery.

The last song on the album is one of Cohen’s most famous and most covered, Bird on a Wire – for many years it was a Dave Van Ronk song that Cohen covered, not the other way around. Here Bill Frissel performs a gorgeous instrumental version. As opposed to Avalanche, here the song itself is such a classic and Cohen’s musicality such that even though there are no vocals, as Frissel plays, we imagine hearing every verse. It is beautiful. And it warms the heart of any listener missing Cohen.