Liner Notes

by BARRY KLEINBORT

     As a professional actress and singer, Ann Kittredge has devoted herself to a life of “imagining.”  This acumen has successfully taken her to Broadway, off-Broadway, regional theaters, films and television.  When the pandemic and its subsequent  lockdown happened in 2020,  Ann quickly devised an online cabaret series,Virtual Shorts, as a way to keep live, collaborative music active.   The journey from monthly stream to recording studio proved inevitable.  And so, welcome to reIMAGINE, the album presently in your hands. The selections on this debut disc are eclectically culled from Broadway, the movies, contemporary pop, and, in one case, a century old operetta.  As the title proclaims, these songs have been re-imagined; newly conceived and inventively arranged.  Employing three ace musical directors and a small group of top notch side players, Ann Kittredge provides you with a listening experience that is fresh and intimate. 

     The album boldly opens with a reimagining of Natasha Bedingfield’s mega-hit of 2006, “Unwritten.”  Although Bedingfield was only twenty-three when she recorded it,  Kittredge’s interpretation proves that any lyric, with the proper perspective, can be ageless. 

     Jim Croce was also a young singer/songwriter who rose from obscurity to superstar status in 1972.   Sadly, his song, “Time in a Bottle” became number one only after his untimely demise.  Here, backed by a trio including accordion, Ann preserves the song’s purity and honest sentiment. 

     Another songwriter who shared Croce’s “common touch” was the highly prolific Irving Berlin.  In 1950, Berlin was out of town with a new musical, Call Me Madam, and his song, “Free,” meant to be the show’s eleven o’clock number, wasn’t delivering.  It was ultimately cut but re-emerged with a new lyric four years later as “Snow,” for the  movie, White Christmas.  Ann presents both versions in order for you to appreciate Berlin’s own talent for “reimagining.” 

     Another musical film, Lili, gave us “Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo.”  When Ann was growing up in New England, she listened to Roger Williams piano version as it was her mother’s favorite song.  It wasn’t until later that she heard the rueful words married to the hurdy-gurdy tune.  In 1961, Lili became Broadway’s Carnival!, where the song “Love Makes the World go ‘Round,” filled the same musical slot.  Here, Ann elegantly swirls the two “Lili” inspired songs into an ornate musical tapestry.  (By the way, Ann’s mother approves of this arrangement.) 

      White Christmas and Lili opened in the 1950s when Hollywood was still turning out original movie musicals.  2016’s La La Land was a return to that tradition.   The movie’s opening song on the L.A. freeway, “Another day of Sun,” has here been stripped-down so that we are no longer battling rush hour, but enjoying some dirt side road below Topanga canyon, fingers snapping all the way. 

     One of the more unusual inclusions is from 2000’s Pokeman:  The Movie.  The song  “The Power of One,” immediately became a part of Ann’s playlist when her kids were growing up.   Allow me to quote Ann on this track: “Chris Denny’s gentle arrangement invites you to hear the limitless possibilities, that we can, in this very moment, reimagine our lives, our community, our expectations, and soar. Yet still, it will forever be for my kids.”  Amen. 

     The CD’s earliest entry, “Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life,” was written over a century ago for Victor Herbert’s Naughty Marietta.  Although such a chestnut would seem ripe for satire, you won’t find that here.  Instead, an artful rippling guitar accompaniment (a la “Everybody’s Talkin’”) provides a contemporary musical match made in heaven.

    In 2019, Ann devoted a cabaret evening to the Tony award winning team, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.  Over the years, Ann has worked closely with both writers, separately and together.  She has particularly admired Steve and Lynn’s fearlessness in finding musical ways to express social injustice.  This album includes a medley from that cabaret tribute, “Make Them Hear You”/“I’m Still Standing,” written respectively for Ragtime and Rocky The Musical.   

     Unlike Irving Berlin’s dropped “Free,” this album showcases three songs that were late additions to their respective scores.  “Before I Gaze at You Again,” from Lerner and Loewe’s CAMELOT (1960), went in just two days before the Broadway opening.  Jerry Herman’s “Hello, Dolly!” also went through an extensive rewrites, including a new first act finale, “Before the Parade Passes By.”   Ann’s rendition replaces that song’s march beat with a slow three four figure, building to an expansive latin feel relocating this parade from 14th street to Rio de Janeiro.   

     From the Boston tryout of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music (1959) comes “Edelweiss,” the last song these two musical giants would ever write together.  Ann is vocally joined by her special guest, the inimitable Steve Ross.  Steve performed “Edelweiss” with Ann on one of her Virtual Shorts broadcasts and it was the most viewed video in the series. On this album, it’s been included as a “bonus selection,” but, there’s nothing superfluous about its inclusion. It generously brings reIMAGINE to a deeply moving and satisfying conclusion.As a professional actress and singer, Ann Kittredge has devoted herself to a life of “imagining.”  This acumen has successfully taken her to Broadway, off-Broadway, regional theaters, films and television.  When the pandemic and its subsequent  lockdown happened in 2020,  Ann quickly devised an online cabaret series,Virtual Shorts, as a way to keep live, collaborative music active.   The journey from monthly stream to recording studio proved inevitable.  And so, welcome to reIMAGINE, the album presently in your hands. The selections on this debut disc are eclectically culled from Broadway, the movies, contemporary pop, and, in one case, a century old operetta.  As the title proclaims, these songs have been re-imagined; newly conceived and inventively arranged.  Employing three ace musical directors and a small group of top notch side players, Ann Kittredge provides you with a listening experience that is fresh and intimate. 

     The album boldly opens with a reimagining of Natasha Bedingfield’s mega-hit of 2006, “Unwritten.”  Although Bedingfield was only twenty-three when she recorded it,  Kittredge’s interpretation proves that any lyric, with the proper perspective, can be ageless. 

     Jim Croce was also a young singer/songwriter who rose from obscurity to superstar status in 1972.   Sadly, his song, “Time in a Bottle” became number one only after his untimely demise.  Here, backed by a trio including accordion, Ann preserves the song’s purity and honest sentiment. 

     Another songwriter who shared Croce’s “common touch” was the highly prolific Irving Berlin.  In 1950, Berlin was out of town with a new musical, Call Me Madam, and his song, “Free,” meant to be the show’s eleven o’clock number, wasn’t delivering.  It was ultimately cut but re-emerged with a new lyric four years later as “Snow,” for the  movie, White Christmas.  Ann presents both versions in order for you to appreciate Berlin’s own talent for “reimagining.” 

     Another musical film, Lili, gave us “Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo.”  When Ann was growing up in New England, she listened to Roger Williams piano version as it was her mother’s favorite song.  It wasn’t until later that she heard the rueful words married to the hurdy-gurdy tune.  In 1961, Lili became Broadway’s Carnival!, where the song “Love Makes the World go ‘Round,” filled the same musical slot.  Here, Ann elegantly swirls the two “Lili” inspired songs into an ornate musical tapestry.  (By the way, Ann’s mother approves of this arrangement.) 

      White Christmas and Lili opened in the 1950s when Hollywood was still turning out original movie musicals.  2016’s La La Land was a return to that tradition.   The movie’s opening song on the L.A. freeway, “Another day of Sun,” has here been stripped-down so that we are no longer battling rush hour, but enjoying some dirt side road below Topanga canyon, fingers snapping all the way. 

     One of the more unusual inclusions is from 2000’s Pokeman:  The Movie.  The song  “The Power of One,” immediately became a part of Ann’s playlist when her kids were growing up.   Allow me to quote Ann on this track: “Chris Denny’s gentle arrangement invites you to hear the limitless possibilities, that we can, in this very moment, reimagine our lives, our community, our expectations, and soar. Yet still, it will forever be for my kids.”  Amen. 

     The CD’s earliest entry, “Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life,” was written over a century ago for Victor Herbert’s Naughty Marietta.  Although such a chestnut would seem ripe for satire, you won’t find that here.  Instead, an artful rippling guitar accompaniment (a la “Everybody’s Talkin’”) provides a contemporary musical match made in heaven.

    In 2019, Ann devoted a cabaret evening to the Tony award winning team, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.  Over the years, Ann has worked closely with both writers, separately and together.  She has particularly admired Steve and Lynn’s fearlessness in finding musical ways to express social injustice.  This album includes a medley from that cabaret tribute, “Make Them Hear You”/“I’m Still Standing,” written respectively for Ragtime and Rocky The Musical.   

     Unlike Irving Berlin’s dropped “Free,” this album showcases three songs that were late additions to their respective scores.  “Before I Gaze at You Again,” from Lerner and Loewe’s CAMELOT (1960), went in just two days before the Broadway opening.  Jerry Herman’s “Hello, Dolly!” also went through an extensive rewrites, including a new first act finale, “Before the Parade Passes By.”   Ann’s rendition replaces that song’s march beat with a slow three four figure, building to an expansive latin feel relocating this parade from 14th street to Rio de Janeiro.   

     From the Boston tryout of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music (1959) comes “Edelweiss,” the last song these two musical giants would ever write together.  Ann is vocally joined by her special guest, the inimitable Steve Ross.  Steve performed “Edelweiss” with Ann on one of her Virtual Shorts broadcasts and it was the most viewed video in the series. On this album, it’s been included as a “bonus selection,” but, there’s nothing superfluous about its inclusion. It generously brings reIMAGINE to a deeply moving and satisfying conclusion.

My reIMAGINE Team