Where Would We Be Without George and Ira?

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Bill Evans, earworm, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Oscar Peterson, Paul Whiteman, Stan Getz, Wintergreen for President

Every now and then I wake up with an earworm that just won’t leave me alone. A couple of days ago I was hit with one and the lyrics kept tracking through my brain. Fortunately, this was not a jingle for air freshener or a grade school ditty (although “Little Ducky Duddles” does occasionally show up). This time I was lucky enough to land on an old Gershwin tune, and even an earworm is welcome when it turns out to be Gershwin.

In this case the tune was from the 1937 movie, Shall We Dance, which featured Fred and Ginger in all their glory. You probably know the lyrics in which case sing right along with Oscar Peterson and friends from his album Oscar Peterson Plays the George Gershwin Song Book, a 1959 Verve recording. “They All Laughed.”

With Gershwin on my mind, I decided to go all out today and give the stage over to a composer who not only understood jazz but wrote so many fine show tunes that have become jazz standards. And with all the presidential campaigning in play, I immediately thought of Gershwin’s 1931 political adventure, Of Thee I Sing, with book by George Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. The musical is actually a satire on politics and political machinations and might actually still play in Peoria.

Given what’s been going on in the debates, we could use John P. Wintergreen, the candidate in this adventure who is running on the “Love” platform. Man, we could use some of that these days but of course, it’s just a ploy and many things happen before the curtain comes down.  Love does, however, win the day and all’s well that ends well.

Gershwin’s opening number proclaims Mr.Wintergreen in rousing all-American style with every political musical cliché in jazzy form. Paul Whiteman, who was so closely tied to Gershwin, plays it now and introduces it himself in a live 1937 broadcast. The tune is “Wintergreen for President!” and it leads me to wonder why we haven’t heard any peppy campaign tunes from anybody yet. Maybe next year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtNiDHw04YQ

The playlist for Of Thee I Sing also included two other well-known tunes, “Love Is Sweeping the Country” and “Who Cares” along with the title song “Of Thee I Sing,” which combines the stately words from “My Country Tis of Thee” with the jazz age appellation, “Baby.” Some were offended, but more were delighted. Here’s Stan Getz with a swingy take on the whole thing from his 1955 Verve album, Stan Getz And The Cool Sounds with bassist Leroy Vinnegar, drummer Shelly Manne, and Lou Levy on piano. Cool, JazzBabies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaNjmrmVQMU

George Gershwin, of course, charted new territory with his crossover pieces – classical and jazz – sometimes defying those who wanted to put him in one box or another. Just a taste here of Gershwin’s ability to put the two together with his lovely “Prelude #2 in C sharp minor,” played by the man himself. This one is sometimes known as his “blues lullaby.” For anyone who’s lived in Manhattan, you’ll recognize a very New York feel to it. A lullaby for a Broadway baby, perhaps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pNa6X_s3Rk

It’s hard to choose just five or six Gershwin’s for a Sunday afternoon, and we will, of course, return to Mr. G time and again, but for now I’ll close with Bill Evans and friends Chuck Israels and Larry Bunker with a fine sound on Gershwin’s “Our Love Is Here to Stay,” from the 1938 Goldwyn Follies and the 1963 album Bill Evans Trio at Shelly’s Manne Hole, Hollywood, California. What could be better? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9WcUtUP7R8

And that’s it for today and for this year’s summer, JazzBabies. Autumn officially comes in tomorrow. Grab your coat and get your hat. If you don’t need them tomorrow, you may soon. All is clear, all is bright in sunny San Diego.

Ciao,

JazzCookie

Memories Are Made of This…and This…and This

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1950s, Bill Evans, Brazil, Diana Krall, Forever Plaid, Four Lads, Gerry Mulligan, Johnny Hodges, Johnny Mercer, Larry Elgart, Les Elgart, Lionel Hampton, Nancy Curtin, The Coug, Washington State University

Summer Piano
photo by Ron Petersen

 

Today’s  programme is a bit on the nostalgia side and a real cross section of genres, history and highlights. Given the space I have available, I can’t cover everything in one post, but I’m of a mind to give it a go and get as far as I can anyway.

The choices today are entirely personal and you can take from that what you will about my own era. Let’s just say I’ve earned the stripes.

I’ve been trying to find a good clip of my friend and creative comrade Nancy Curtin to share with you for some time now, and I recently did. Nancy and I became comrades in more than creativity – she sings, I write – when she came out with her first CD about the same time I came out with my jazz novel, Listen. We encouraged each other through the separate, but more or less equal, processes and acknowledgements, of course, included each other’s names.

Anyway, Nancy is a consummate interpreter of Brazilian jazz and although a native of Portland, Oregon, she has studied and speaks – and especially sings – Portuguese with the style and grace of a Rio cantor menina. On this tune, “A Felicidade” from her 2003 album Songs From Brazil, she’s backed by Portland jazz dudes Bill Beach on piano, Phil Baker on bass and Ron Steen on drums. Please welcome Miss Nancy Curtin. http://nancycurtin.bandcamp.com/track/a-feli-idade

The 1958 Sound Ideas album from Columbia Records was one of my earliest jazz purchases. Remember the old Columbia Record Club? And the usually friendly competition to have the best sound equipment when sound equipment consisted of a receiver, a perfectly balanced turntable and a couple of great speakers?

I remember spending what at the time was a lot of money for diamond needles. And the sound was sooooo good. Then along came CDs and that was the big Wow. They were easier to store and unlikely to break, but the sound didn’t seem quite as rich. Now it’s all electronics and you can load a bazillion songs on a device no bigger than a lipstick. Progress.

But let me take you back for a few minutes to 1958 with Les and Larry Elgart and one of their swingin’ sound ideas: the 1940 Rodgers and Hart tune from Pal Joey, “I Could Write a Book.” I could and I did and might just have been inspired by this recording. Check out that turntable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8oGh2jCaBI

A couple of days ago I watched a DVD that sent me all the way back to 1956. Forever Plaid is not strictly speaking jazz, of course, but it’s a great spoof with songs from the mid-50s, a time that featured “guy groups,” (as opposed to boy bands) specifically, close harmony quartets that had a lot of jazz chops going for them: The Four Aces, The Four Lads, The Brothers Four, the Hi-Los to name but a few. It was a musical industry and Forever Plaid does a terrific job of reminding us of those days.

One of the featured numbers is a tune I danced to at The Coug in Pullman, Washington…a student hang-out on the WSU campus back in the day – the kind of place where having a guy carve your initials in one of the wooden tables was as good as getting an engagement ring. By now The Coug has likely gone the way of all fine old student hang-outs, but the memories linger on. Here they are, the Four Lads with “No, Not Much.”  Quick, when was the last time your brain got hazy from somebody’s cool and crazy touch? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMpJqHhXAOg

Next up, an old tune with a contemporary take – Diana Krall singing and playing on “Midnight Sun.”   The tune was composed as an instrumental in 1947 by Lionel Hampton and Sonny Burke. Johnny Mercer, that man who penned memorable lyrics for so many fine tunes added the lyrics later. The story goes that Mercer heard the instrumental on his car radio while driving on a southern California freeway and was inspired to come up with the words as he drove. A nice ironic touch – southern California, the Arctic midnight sun and, of course, all that jazz. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt5TVPTCt1E

You know me well enough by now, JazzBabies, to suspect I’ll slip a Bill Evans number in here somewhere and this is the “where.” Without further ado, the Bill Evans trio with Chuck Israels on bass and Larry Bunker on drums, recorded live in March 1965. “Some Day My Prince Will Come,” from Disney’s Cinderella movie. I dated a photographer for a while long before digital cameras and he used to joke that this was the photographer’s theme song. Okay, okay…I’ll stop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VigOzx_8BbU

I’m going to take us out with bounce – or maybe a little hop – with “Bunny,” a Gerry Mulligan original from his 1959 studio date with Johnny Hodges for Verve. They’re backed by pianist Claude Williamson, bassist Buddy Clark and Mel Lewis on drums. Seems like just the thing for a late summer evening as the sun begins to go down in San Diego. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4F0U2Y350Y

Wherever you are, JazzBabies, enjoy these last days of summer. If you have a chance to hear some live music, go on out there and support your local musicians. They’ll appreciate it and you just can’t get the same experience from an album or a CD or digital music.  You just have to be there.

Ciao,

JazzCookie

 

 

The Summer Party May Be Over, But The Melodies Linger On

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Charlie Byrd, Disney, Ernestine Anderson, Frank Sinatra, Jazz Standards, Kai Winding, Labor Day, Nat Adderley, Segovia, September, Seven Dwarfs

Well, we’ve come to the unofficial end of summer, JazzBabies – Labor Day weekend – and the beaches are filled with everybody who wants one last party before it’s over. Highways are jammed with folks who just didn’t want to head home until the last minute because home means back to work and you can’t wear your baggy shorts or your bikini to the office. Well, okay in southern California you might.

At any rate, we’re already in the second week of September, and the jazz beat goes on, la di da di di, la di da di da. (Spell check does not like that line one bit.)

It does seem appropriate to open with a tune for the season and, while this one spans a couple of seasons and mentions weather most of us are not having, we probably all have at least one memory of an end-of-summer farewell. Frank Sinatra and Nelson Riddle are here to give you a swingin’ musical salute to that memory. Lyricists are poets, of course, some better than others. Al Dubin, who teamed up here with Harry Warren, was one of the best. The lines scan, the internal rhymes work and it all makes for beautiful music. See if you agree. “September in the Rain.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bayzyYr4BtE

For the Labor Day weekend, I’ve gathered a few tunes at least loosely related to the subject of work. I didn’t find any that spoke to the labor of love musicians know so well, but here’s one that – well – works, JazzBabies. It’s the fine Mr. Nat Adderley on cornet, Wes Montgomery on guitar, Bobby Timmons on piano, Sam Jones on bass with Keter Betts, Percy Heath and Louis Hayes to round things out on – what else – “Work Song.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWNZo8iJ5EQ

My man, Charlie Byrd is up next with one of the first tunes I heard Charlie play way back when. Without fireworks or gimmicks, Charlie Byrd was simply a dedicated, no-nonsense master of the jazz guitar who studied with Segovia and gave no quarter to people who came to listen and talked through the music. I was witness to this one night at a club in Washington DC when he just stopped playing until noisy talkers got the message and shut up. God knows I wish this happened more often. But that’s for another conversation. Here’s Charlie with Keter Betts on bass and Buddy Deppenschmidt on drums with a Gershwin favorite, “Nice Work if You Can Get It.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKOw3fUfHKw

Before we leave the World of Work, I’m including a light-hearted tribute to workers who are not in an air-conditioned office or wearing designer suits. These workers trudge off to hard labor day in and day out but they’ve learned to accept their lot by whistling a happy tune. Yeah, you guessed – it’s the Seven Dwarfs, and the Kai Winding Septet brings us a bouncy jazz version of their tune. Personnel here includes Winding, Carl Fontana, Dick Lieb and Wayne Andre on trombones with Jack Franklin on drums, Kenny O’Brien on bass and Roy Frazee on piano. “Whistle While You Work,” and quick now, name the Seven Dwarfs while you listen! (Hint: Chucky, Snooky, and Waldo were not among them.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmW-xp5lr6k

This next tune has nothing to do with anything related to work (unless you’ve made a lot of money doing it), but it’s a mellow tune from 1931 when folks were living through a depression but dreaming of those luxury apartments on Park Avenue that featured in so many movies. Honestly, a little girl from Idaho could have moved right in. And she would have wanted the penthouse, of course. Here’s Erroll Garner with the wishful and lovely “Penthouse Serenade.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42CxF1RboaQ&list=PLFNXF9a5upesB59xpD4Nnifoagwj9r9Bp

Speaking of the old favorites, the Jazz Standards website lists their top ten jazz standards here http://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions-5/penthouseserenade.htm.

I can’t say I know how they arrived at the rankings, but I can’t find anything here to argue with. Take a look and see what you think.

And finally, on this last summer weekend, I want to let you know how I feel about all you JazzBabies. I’ve invited Ernestine Anderson to help me tell you. I heard her do this one live in Seattle and she knows just what to say. She means it and I mean it, too. The personnel list on this recording was a little difficult to track down, but I think it goes this way: Dave McKenna on piano, Ed Bickert on guitar, Steve Wallace on bass, Jimmie Smith on drums. If anybody has better information, let me know. The lyrics for this song, by the way, were written by Peggy Lee. Here is Miss Ernestine herself…She loves being here with you and so do I. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLg-1i2XQds

Enjoy the rest of your Labor Day holiday, JazzBabies. I’ll be back next week with tunes from near and far.

Ciao!

JazzCookie