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In the past few years he’s released a string of disparate albums for the German label Winter & Winter. On Las Vegas Rhapsody (2006), a collaboration with Japanese pianist Fumio Yasuda and Swiss orchestra Kammerorchester Basel, he sings American pop standards like “You Make Me Feel So Young” and “You Go to My Head,” delivering more or less straight-ahead renditions atop lush instrumental arrangements. It’s not exactly my cup of tea, but Bleckmann’s rich voice gives the melodies a rarefied dignity they rarely achieve in the mouths of piano-lounge singers.
More recently Bleckmann collaborated with New York jazz group Kneebody on Twelve Songs by Charles Ives. Kneebody gives these art songs a beguiling variety of treatments–sparse but inventive arrangements that create tension not only between the vocal melody and the backing rhythms but also within the harmonies Bleckmann and the band generate together. Bleckmann alternates between straight readings and extended, often wordless improvisations that he weaves meticulously into the fabric of sound. Kneebody is a perfect partner for him here, since in its own work it routinely emphasizes group interaction rather than a single soloist.
