![\"Gloria-Estefan-Issue-No29\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Gloria-Estefan-Issue-No29.jpg\")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\n\u00a0<\/b>Since her 1985 breakthrough\u00a0with the Miami Sound Machine, Gloria Estefan\u2019s hits like \u201cAnything for You,\u201d\u00a0\u201c1-2-3\u201d and \u201cLive for Loving You\u201d have added a Cuban flavor to pop success that\u2019s made the Havana-born songstress a household name.<\/p>\n
After more than 20 albums, Estefan\u2019s latest is a far cry from her early kinetic dance grooves. On the aptly titled The Standards<\/i>, Estefan, along with Shelly Berg, dean of the University of Miami Frost School of Music, delves into the Great American Songbook for a lush collection of Tin Pan Alley classics. She not only adapts English lyrics to Brazilian Antonio Carlos Jobim\u2019s\u00a0\u201cEu Sei Que Vou Te Amar,\u201d but also turns Charlie Chaplin\u2019s immortal \u201cSmile\u201d into a sensual affirmation in both Spanish and Italian. Estefan, 56, also displays her vocal skills in\u00a0French and Portuguese.<\/p>\n
The project has been a dream for the seven-time Grammy winner since she performed \u201cGood Morning Heartache\u201d on her first Tonight Show<\/i> appearance in 1985 while promoting her first smash, \u201cConga.\u201d \u201cThey asked us to do a second song,\u201d she recalls, \u201cso I thought, \u2018OK, I\u2019m going to show people what I love to do\u2014something completely different from what I\u2019m doing here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s been surprising audiences ever since. On The Standards <\/i>she enlists Italian singer-songwriter Laura Pausini on \u201cSmile,\u201d and sax ace Dave Koz on \u201cHow Long Has This Been Going On\u201d and \u201cThe Way You Look Tonight.\u201d Violin virtuoso Joshua Bell adds his rich tones on Argentinean idol Carlos Gardel\u2019s \u201cThe Day You Say You Love Me,\u201d included because it was Estefan and husband Emilio\u2019s wedding dance song.<\/p>\n
You sang live during production.<\/b><\/p>\n
This genre was always recorded that way because the technology didn\u2019t exist. You get something very special when you perform live with other musicians\u2014things happen that don\u2019t when I\u2019m just putting my voice on one track. Each time we performed, something else would come.<\/p>\n
Why this album, and why now?<\/b><\/p>\n
This genre is my heart. This is what I listened to growing up. This is what I played on my guitar for my mom and dad, from Johnny Mathis to Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. When I grew up, I always planned to do something like this, but I was waiting for the right moment and the right idea. Two years ago I was at a trustee dinner for the University of Miami, and Shelly Berg sat at the piano and said, \u201cCome on, Gloria, let\u2019s do a song together!\u201d I rarely do that, but I wasn\u2019t going to be a stick-in-the-mud. So I said, \u201cDo you know \u2018Good Morning Heartache\u2019?\u201d As we performed, and I saw his passion and the feeling I got, the whole thing unfolded in my head\u2014I saw the album in front of me. It\u2019s my first album that I\u2019ve produced completely, and it\u2019s been my baby from inception.<\/p>\n
How did you select the songs?<\/b><\/p>\n
I literally went through thousands of titles and narrowed it down to 50 that meant something to me. The only thing I could possibly bring to these standards that have been done by the cream of the crop is to bring my own experience, heart and style to the performances. So I downloaded five to six different versions of the songs I had chosen. Shelly and I selected the 16 we recorded. Then I just sang it from the heart and let it fly!<\/p>\n
Is it intimidating singing songs that have become classics?<\/b><\/p>\n
Yes, it\u2019s daunting\u2014but taking risks, it\u2019s what we do in our career. Every time you put out an album, you\u2019re setting yourself up. It\u2019s the nature of the business. So the biggest compliment I got was from Chuck Berghofer, the bassist who played with all the greats of the genre. He told me they thought I had done the consummate version of \u201cGood Morning Heartache.\u201d That to me was ridiculous, but beautiful to hear!<\/p>\n
Five languages, how\u2019d you do that?<\/b><\/p>\n
French was my minor in college. I brought my daughter\u2019s French teacher to make sure\u2014I wanted it to be the best it could be. Then I brought in my daughter-in-law\u2019s father, who\u2019s from Milan, when I was doing the Italian version, to make sure the pronunciation was right. I wrote the Spanish version of \u201cSmile,\u201d which is something unique\u2014I was able to write with Chaplin! I sang it for Geraldine Chaplin, and she cried and said she loved it more in Spanish than in English. I do have, fortunately, a world audience, and I wanted to make it more of a world-focused album.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s your approach to songs in different languages?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
In Spanish, for example, there is no way of being overly romantic or passionate. Even in the melodies you need more space to get an idea across. In English you have to use more restraint, because it becomes saccharine. You have to be more concise in the meaning. When I\u2019m writing in each language, I can approach it directly from that language, because I\u2019m bilingual. Because I sing in Spanish, I have different phrasings in English that might not occur to a person who only speaks English because it\u2019s not in their vocabulary. So it really does extend my possibilities.<\/p>\n
Did any songs test you?<\/b><\/p>\n
The whole album did because I knew I was going to do it live, and I wanted to keep the liveness. I\u2019ve been working with a new vocal coach, Torb Pedersen, who gave me a new way of looking\u00a0at certain things neurologically\u2014the\u00a0physical nature of your throat and how to use those muscles. I started preparing for it\u00a0a year before, really\u00a0being in top, top vocal performance shape. It\u2019s not the same in ballads as when you\u2019re singing\u00a0uptempo songs, where you\u2019re singing like a machine gun. It\u2019s much easier to\u00a0sing fast songs.<\/p>\n
So you can\u2019t fake a ballad.<\/b><\/p>\n
You have to be able to really do<\/i> it.\u00a0You have to be able to sustain the note and not choke it off. And to really emote, you want to be in control of your instrument.<\/p>\n
Are you touring behind this record?<\/b><\/p>\n
I did my last major tour in 2004, and now I do one-offs and things. I\u2019m going to do the Royal Albert Hall in England, and I\u2019m doing a concert in Basel, Switzerland. I would love to do that kind of thing, maybe eventually in the States, like maybe Carnegie Hall or Radio City.<\/p>\n
But not a daily grind?<\/b><\/p>\n
No, I can\u2019t do that anymore. It\u2019s grueling, and I\u2019m at a different point in my life now. I really want to enjoy my grandbaby and my mom. And Emilio and I run a lot of businesses. It\u2019s a handful! Let the up-and-coming performers do it. When I was in my 20s I told Emilio, \u201cI\u2019m going to work really hard so one day I don\u2019t have to.\u201d And oddly it\u2019s not that I\u2019m working less, but I\u2019m able to choose luxuriously what I do and when I do it. To me music has always been an emotional thing. It\u2019s never been about, \u201cLet me be famous and put out a hit record so we can make money.\u201d We got lucky that we enjoyed some wonderful years in the industry. Art has always been done for the sake of art. If you can find a way to make a living at it, that\u2019s fantastic. But an artist is going to need to share that with the world. That\u2019s the whole point of being an artist.<\/p>\n
\u2013Bob Cannon<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GLORIA ESTEFAN Realizing a longtime dream with her take on timeless tunes\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Since her 1985 breakthrough\u00a0with the Miami Sound Machine, Gloria Estefan\u2019s hits like \u201cAnything for You,\u201d\u00a0\u201c1-2-3\u201d and \u201cLive for Loving You\u201d have added a Cuban flavor to pop success that\u2019s made the Havana-born songstress a household name. After more than 20 albums, Estefan\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[7254,7093],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11048"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11050,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11048\/revisions\/11050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}