The Comedian Harmonists

Long quarantined to the province of obsessive record collectors and historical nitpickers (rock scribe supreme Lester Bangs--a mutant spawn of those two groups if there ever was--loved them like family), the Comedian Harmonists are making their stateside debut some 70 years after their heyday. For a spell, the Harmonists were the toast of pre-WWII Berlin, flooring audiences with their dizzying harmonic acuity. But their harmonies are only half the story. The Comedian half of the CH equation comes from--among other tricks--an astute knack for vocal mimicry. On Duke Ellington's "Creole Love Call" they imitate kazoo, muted trumpet, trombone, even theremin to positively alien effect. But the Harmonists' good humor belies the exacting skill and recurrent hint of sorrow and longing that pervades their work. Their rendering of Cole Porter's classic "Night and Day," with its paradoxical taskmaster's precision and soft sentimentality, accounts for one of the many shining moments on this compilation. Imagine Elmer Fudd crooning from atop a piano in a Berlin cabaret and you'll get an inkling of the Harmonists' singular charms. --Matt Hanks