In 1966, 20-year-old
Liza Minnelli released as her third solo album the Francophile collection
There Is a Time, its title song a cover of
Charles Aznavour's "Le Temps" with English lyrics. Six years later,
Minnelli recorded her first live album at the Olympia in Paris. So, she had a demonstrated affinity with France and its leading singer long before the two teamed up for a co-headlining season at the Palais des Congrès in Paris in the fall of 1991. The resulting two-and-a-half-hour double-CD includes what are essentially full-length live performances by each performer. After some slightly comic business at the top and a couple of duets on
Aznavour's "The Sound of Your Name" and "Mon Emouvant Amour," he takes over for the rest of the first disc, singing many of his familiar self-written songs. The two singers do some jazz scatting at the start of the second disc ("Pour Faire une Jam"), and then
Minnelli holds the stage alone for 12 numbers that include her greatest hits old and new ("Cabaret," "New York, New York,"
the Pet Shop Boys' disco arrangement of
Stephen Sondheim's "Losing My Mind"), the title song from her then-new movie, Stepping Out, and some special material worked up for the French audience, notably
Aznavour's "Sailor Boys" (sung in English) and "J'ai Deux Amours" ("I Have Two Loves," these being "mon pays [my country] and Paris"). Happily, she and
Aznavour then team up for a 15-minute, 14-song medley of pop standards, ending, inevitably, with "Le Temps." There's little here one hasn't heard before from
Aznavour and
Minnelli, so the best moments are the ones when they work together. ~ William Ruhlmann