Sandra Bernhard's new music takes on the world

She can get a laugh just by walking out on stage, but Sandra Bernhard’s new album Whatever It Takes departs from her unique monolog/music hybrid concert performances and recordings. Rather, it’s all music, played straight--albeit with the caring, uplifting qualities that mark her uproarious, keen-edged comedy.

And the music is a surprising world music mix of African, South American, Indian and Middle Eastern elements, instead of original pop songs and artfully chosen covers like AC/DC's raucous "You Shook Me All Night Long" or the Rolling Stones’ classic common-man fanfare "Salt of the Earth."

Much of the credit for the scope of the album—which comes out Aug. 25—goes to Ted Mason, a former guitarist for Modern English, who produced Whatever It Takes and co-wrote the songs with Bernhard.

“He played bass for me in England, and knew I was political and cared about music in the global sense,” says Bernhard, who lives in New York. “He’s also a wonderful virtuoso guitarist and a very talented songwriter. But the great thing is that we wrote and recorded the album in the waning hours of the Bush administration and the beginning of the Obama administration: It was a wonderful creative bridge for me between Bush’s indifferent take on the world and culture, and Obama’s multicultural background and openness to different things. All this is reflected in the album.”

Lead track “All Around,” which features vocal backing from Bernhard’s pal Chrissie Hynde and Rwandan musician/cultural ambassador Jean Paul Samputu, embodies the concept, both in its Paul Simon-like blend of African music with rock, and the lyrics’ directive to free ourselves and open our eyes to possibility. Samputu is spotlighted in two other standouts, “Don’t Cry In Bed,” which employs a thick, late-Beatles production and deals with loss and trying to survive, and especially the glistening “Why So Blue,” which is based on Samputu’s experience of surviving Rwandan genocide.

Bernhard also cites the sitar-textured “A New World” for its “throwback psychedelic” evocation of the music of her 1960s youth, “We’re On Our Way”’s jubilant trip to distant lands, and the closing “A Woman In Love,” a lush, “chanteuse-y song,” she says, “more like what I sing in my shows.”

Those shows, she acknowledges, are difficult to describe.

“They’re a fusion of so many different people who have influenced me over the years that it’s almost impossible to pinpoint,” she says. “I like to think of it as a smashup of burlesque, cabaret, rock ‘n’ roll, musicals, comedy and theater.”

And her fans get it all right away.

“It’s like we’re all in on the joke together, skipping all the explanations and going straight to the point,” she continues. “And I love the response I get from people: It’s like they’re seeing an old friend.”

But with Whatever It Takes, many of them may be seeing a new side.

“I’ve always been attracted to world music,” Bernhard explains. “African music, of course, is the rhythmic backbone of all music, and it’s so beautifully incorporated into this album. And I love Indian and Arabic music. But I really wanted to do something as someone who’s out front--that would manifest a holistic expression of world music and my take on the world.”

Bernhard has been observing the 20th anniversary of her show Without You I’m Nothing, the recording of which featured a then-unknown Tori Amos singing backup vocals on Bernhard’s version of Prince’s “Little Red Corvette.” She performed that song again in June (along with another Without You I’m Nothing classic, “Me and Mrs. Jones”) when she brought the internationally-touring revival to New York’s Town Hall.

But she has yet to integrate any of the Whatever It Takes songs into her shows, and is considering a club tour in select cities to focus solely on those songs in smaller settings. “It’s a different format for me, and I’m excited to get it out there,” she says of the new album and its material. “And it may be good for a new generation of fans who may not know exactly what I do and aren’t judgmental.”

Meanwhile, she’s been going to town on Twitter. Her tweets are very much like her shows: spontaneous, far-reaching (she relates everything from health tips—“rehydration is the key!”--to the refreshing effect on the creative process from doing the laundry), and in the case of her play-by-play reporting of the televised Serena Williams-Elena Dementieva Wimbledon match, breathless.

“I’m really enjoying it and have made some new fans from Twitter,” she concludes. “It’s a nice way of keeping my ideas out there without beating people over the head—like with blogging. Besides, I’ve been blogging live on stage with comedy and fabulous songs for 25 years!”

(Photo credit: Jasmine Hirst)