‘My album is for the heart, the mind and the soul’
Gehan Cooray loves the soaring, dramatic crescendos and the soul-uplifting glory of opera- “noble and refined and pure”- and this devotion to the classical is reflected in his new vocal album- Classical and Cool- now eligible for votes at the Grammy Awards.
Championing his hunky baritone, it has however a fringe of jazz; an idea Gehan at first frowned about, but now he is happy that the album appeals to “a diverse spectrum of music aficionados”. “After all,” he tells me “it was the great operatic soprano Jessye Norman who said: ‘Pigeon-holes are only for pigeons!’”
Gehan: Back on the scene with an album of contrasts
Also an actor and producer, Gehan, now based in Los Angeles, with his bright eyes and boyish mien has earned the moniker the ‘innocent lamb’ in the American music scene. The artiste was paid that tribute by the rapper Rockwilder.
Having done a Carnegie Hall solo concert, Gehan’s new album has a selection from 18th Century opera arias to vintage jazz- passing through 19th Century sacred music, 20th century Operetta and Broadway hits.
Gehan says he wanted dramatic contrast in the album, and certainly it sizzles and cools; thunders and soothes. There is Schubert’s Ave Maria alongside American Broadway hit “Cleopatterer”, a satirical tribute to the Queen of the Nile (co-authored by P. G. Wodehouse).
The Devil’s Arias from Gounod’s Faust, with “some brand new jazz instrumentation underscoring Satan’s fiendishly sardonic personality” is set off by a cinematically epic and sweepingly grand arrangement of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”, the ultimate tribute to God and Christ.
Old romantic favourites like the ballad “Plaisir d’amour” and the jazz standard “After You’ve Gone” are contrasted by the theme of retribution/ revenge in Handel’s aria “Above Measure Is the Pleasure” where Gehan morphs into a Greco-Roman god basking in the power of his vengeance.
Gehan rewrote the lyrics of a number of pieces originally written for sopranos, among them The Prima Donna Song from The Enchantress and the rather catchy I Love a Piano. He thinks the diva pieces by a baritone would be interesting in our times when gender boundaries are fading fast. Italian, Latin and French pieces also feature.
The two arias from Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” contrast: one is by the congenial, whimsical and heroic title character Figaro about how much he enjoys his life, and the other by the scheming, villainous Don Basilio about how calumny and slander can be used to bring down one’s opponent.
Gehan says the second aria is the darkest in the album- “even darker than the Devil’s aria and the Vengeance aria – because one doesn’t have to be the Devil or a Greco-Roman deity to slander someone; we see the people around us doing it all the time, which is a horrific state of affairs”.
Consequently the album goes above and beyond entertainment, and is a reminder that “great music – whether it comes in the form of Opera, Broadway Musical Theatre, Jazz, or Sacred Songs – can encompass not only fun, merriment and enjoyment, but also the complex dimensions of Psychology, Sociology, and Spirituality… My album is for the heart, the mind and the soul,” Gehan adds.
As for the collaborators on the album, two of them were Grammy winners- the Sri Lankan American Hussain Jiffry who has been in L.A for several decades now, and Russell Ferrante who is most famous for being a part of the band Yellowjackets.
Also, Gehan says the microphone used turned out to be the same microphone that is normally reserved for Andrea Bocelli and Josh Groban. According to Hussain Jiffry it was the best microphone in L.A for a singer with Gehan’s vocal timbre.
As all the classic pieces come with brand new musical arrangements, the listeners will hear totally fresh versions of old favourites. The majority of the arrangements were by Steven Weingart, while Russ Ferrante too did a few.
L.A’s premier harpist, Gayle Levant collaborated while the list of stars included the clarinetist and saxophonist Tom Rainier – who has collaborated with the legendary Tony Bennett many times.
In order to vote for the Grammy Awards you have to be a member of the Recording Academy, as the website is password protected, but Gehan reminds that you can still listen to his album on all major music platforms like Spotify, iTunes/Apple Music, and Amazon etc. Search for “Gehan Cooray” and/or “Classical and Cool”.