Joan Beckow: Legacy Project
Joan Beckow

Upon hearing this wonderful double-disc set, listeners will likely ask the same question: “How is it possible that Joan Beckow isn't better known?” After all, the calibre of writing featured on the release suggests it wouldn't be entirely wrong to say her name in the company of Stephen Sondheim and others of his estimable ilk. Her command of melody and harmony is vividly demonstrated, often breathtakingly so, on the recording. All praise then to the project's music directors, mother-and-daughter duo Wendy Bross Stuart and Jessica Stuart, for creating the Joan Beckow Legacy Project, currently represented by this twenty-two-song collection and a twenty-five-minute documentary, and directing attention to this remarkable talent's work.

So, first of all, who was she? Born in Chicago in 1933, Beckow (née Beckman) showed an early gift for music and after high school attended UCLA's music program. In the early ‘50s, she wrote musicals for the theatre department and developed a close friendship with fellow student, Carol Burnett. After a NYC stint and a return to the West Coast to teach music in public schools and compose material for theatre companies and choirs, Beckow moved to Vancouver, married, had children, and worked as a composer and music director for Canadian theatre companies. Eventually, she hired Bross Stuart as her assistant music director and co-pianist, a collaborative partnership that extended beyond four decades. Over the years, Beckow never stopped adding to a catalogue of choral works, musicals, film scores, and art songs before passing away in early 2021 at eighty-eight.

Her music was performed publicly thousands of times yet was never recorded, hence its under-the-radar status, something the Stuarts aim to correct with this posthumous debut. Jessica's not only the album's producer, she's also a respected singer who appears on a number of the pieces. She's but one of many vocalists involved, with the others, many recording artists in their own right, culled from the Toronto and Vancouver music scenes. Wendy likewise contributes, she credited as the arranger for most of the songs and the pianist throughout. With woodwinds, strings, trombone, percussion, and double bass providing instrumental backing, the songs benefit from rich, chamber-like arrangements. Enhancing the visceral impact of the songs, they were recorded live at Toronto's Canterbury Music Co. and The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver. The collection, organized into musical theatre material (I Will Be The Tune) and classical/sacred songs (Hear My Spirit Sing), couldn't be more comprehensive, spanning as it does fifty-five years.

Jessica starts things off by gracing “Once There Was a Tailor,” a number from the 1973 musical Seven At a Blow and a fine example of Beckow's disarmingly beautiful writing, with a strong vocal; that the song includes a memorable flute solo by Anh Phung doesn't hurt either. Stuart's later joined by singer Jackson Welchner and vibraphonist Michael Davidson for the chills-inducing “Happy Ever-Aftering.” Nothing against singer Doug MacNaughton, but the vocal treatment “Look at Me,” from the 1973 musical A New Suit For the Emperor, is a little too flamboyant for my taste, even if it's true to the spirit of a song. Faring better in “A Christmas Wish” is Toronto singer Alex Samaras, whose always appealing voice enlivens this delightful yuletide gem. With strings sweetening the arrangement, it's easy to hear the song as a newly discovered Christmas favourite in the making. Samaras returns on the second disc for a stirring appreciation of nature, “Loveliest of Trees,” set to text by A. E. Housman.

Beckow's talent for music theatre writing is shown by “Miracles,” an uplifting song delivered with charm by the youngest singer on the release, fifteen-year-old Maisie Meneer. As affecting is the lyrical “On the Other Side of Nowhere,” from the 1978 musical Where Now, Captain Cook?, which benefits from a touchingly earnest vocal by Kat Palmer. From the same musical, “Guided by the Stars” likewise features Palmer, now partnered with vocalist Danny Fong. “Pretending,” first performed by Burnett in NYC in the mid-‘50s and elevated here by Rosie Callaghan's heartfelt vocal, was written one day before permission to include “Over the Rainbow” in an off-Broadway show was denied to Joan and Carol.

The recording's second half is no less strong than the first, with many of the sacred songs melodically distinguished. The tone is set by “May the Words,” a moving devotional piece featuring the exquisite vocal trio of Stuart, Jessica Lalonde, and Jocelyn Barth. The three re-appear for “Dwelling Places,” a haunting setting originally written for women's choral ensemble in the ‘80s with text from the Jewish liturgy. Lalonde and Barth pair to stunning effect in “Wheresoever I Turn Mine Eyes,” a piece completed in 2001 and revised by Bross Stuart in Joan's memory twenty years later.

Beckow's writing remained strong across the years, as evidenced by “Open Unto Us,” a Judaism-inspired song from the late ‘80s and sung by Lalonde with deep feeling, the prayerful “Oseh Shalom,” also written in the ‘80s and using words from the final paragraph of the Kaddish, and “Psalm 8,” which Bross Stuart and Beckow completed in 2009. A smattering of klezmer seeps into the recording via “Tov L'Hodot,” here given a lively treatment by Palmer with Drew Jurecka on clarinet. The collection fittingly concludes with a home demo recording of Beckow herself performing “How Goodly Are Thy Tents,” the song's charm coming through despite the low-quality sound.

November 2022