Bryan Ferry: “I love Beyoncé!”

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:13:00 +0000

Bryan Ferry's long been an elegant stylist with one foot in the past and one in the present. As the leader of Roxy Music in the 1970s, he conducted a tempestuous and sexy art-rock swirl that still sounds otherworldly and modern to this day. And as the debonair singer with the romantic post-party croon, he's created the come-down classics "Avalon," "Boys and Girls" and several albums of reinvented torch songs and classics.

Ferry's had an eye for the remake/remodel from the very beginning, dating back to his 1973 solo album "These Foolish Things," then running through his swoon-worthy cover of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy" and later solo efforts like "As Time Goes By." His latest album, "The Jazz Age" (credited to the Bryan Ferry Orchestra), puts another new spin on the past -- it's a collection of Roxy Music and Ferry solo songs rerecorded in the style of the 1920s. Oh, and they're all instrumentals. As familiar as many of these songs might be, these versions manage to be fresh and sometimes unrecognizable; Ferry has a way of making even a backward-looking exercise like this seem effortlessly cool and completely irresistible.

Salon.com > The Jazz Age

Bryan Ferry: “I love Beyoncé!”