TONY BENNETT SINGS A POIGNANT SONG OF LOSS " WHERE DO YOU START ?"

Tony Bennett sings a poignant song of loss " Where Do You Start ?"

Johnny Mandel. the composer of " The Shadow of Your Smile" and " Emily" collaborated with Allan and Marilyn Bergman to create a wonderful and poignant song called " Where Do You Start ?"

It deals with the aftermath of a romantic relationship and decisions about deciding whose books are yours and mine, the fact that their lives have been tangled in a vine that intertwine and ultimately that " There will always be a part of me that stays in love with you."  They have agreed to part but somehow will always be connected.
Bennett sings with such sincerity and conviction the song surely must have made a connection with his own personal life.
The musical arrangement is also by composer Mandel, a master of wonderful melodies and entrancing harmony.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBEY0UcU7WE&list=RDDBEY0UcU7WE#t=9

"iLL wIND"--- GREAT HAROLD ARLEN TORCH SONG FROM THE 1934 COTTON CLUB REVUE

" Ill Wind "--Great Harold Arlen torch song from the 1934 Cotton Club Revue.

Harold Arlen and lyricist Ted Koehler wrote quite few numbers for various Cotton Club shows. Perhaps the most famous was Stormy Weather although there were also a number of nearly salacious numbers for the sophisticated and thrill-seeking night clubbers.
Society types gladly travelled to Harlem to partake of an exciting and often dangerous environment where blacks could enterain but were not welcome as patrons. Famous entertainers like Ethel Waters, Lene Horne and the Nicholas Brothers and bandleaders like Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway also starred.

In the 197'0's, Paramount Pictures recreated that turbulent Prohibition era with a movie called The Cotton Club. It portrayed the gangster control of both nightclubs and black entertainers as well as the sophisticated production numbers in all Cotton Club shows.
In the film, Lonette McKee plumbs the emotional torment in the song while other film footage portrays the violence so common of those times. It was, however, a most exciting era captured in the film,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaShvVW1w5U

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TORME/SHEARING RODGERD & HAMMERSTEIN--IT MIGHT AS WELL BE SPRING- PURE MAGIC !

Torme/Shearing Rodgers 7 Hammerstein--It Might As Well Be Spring-Pure Magic !

This live concert brought together two sets of musical talents.  Singer Mel Torme, his pianistic soul mate George Shearing as well as the consummate melodist Richard Rodgers and   Oscar Hammerstein.at his poetical best.
Shearing starts with a classical British folk motif. Then Torme enters reverently with his perfect pitch, intonation and sensitivity. The music and word are one throughout the performance. Any other comments would be superfluous.
Please enjoy.

http://youtu.be/cwBuI07cy6g

" JUST FRIENDS" MEL TORME SWINGS WITH THE BOSS BRASS

" Just Friends"  Mel Torme Swings With The Boss Brass.  In 1932, John Klenner, a German born, classicly rained musician wrote a song that is still played, especially by jazz musicians and singers. The lyrics were provided  by Sam Lewis and their short, intensive nature are well-matched  with the rhythmic thrust of the melody.
In this version, Melt Torme teams up with 21 piece Canadian jazz band created and master minded by Rob McConnell. McConnell was a spirited and inventive valve trombonist who was slated to replace Bob Brookmeyer in Gerry Mulligan's Quartet. Other considerations prevailed and McConnell built up a very extensive book of original songs and highly imaginative arrangement of jazz and popular song standards. McConnell's hard-driving arrangement, played by the cream of Toronto's jazz musicians, creates a dynamic interplay between the band and Torme whose timing, articulation and improvisational flights of fancy are compelling. McConnell's valve trombone solo is very reflective of the man himself, dynamic, cranky and humorous all at once. The recording has a free-flowing feel of a small group so well-rehearsed and integrated are the singer and the musicians.Other things to listen to are the tight, unison section playing, some exuberant scat singing with Torme and McConnell trading solos and the tempo slows to a strolling tempo only to finish in a bravura, up-tempo finale. Torme and The Boss Brass made two records together   showcasing the remarkable collaboration  of a singer, an arranger/trombonist and McConnell's own band of dedicated  musicians.





LINK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhFW2Rj1qR0

"TRY TO REMEMBER" THE POWER OF MUSIC MEMORIES

"  Try To Remember"   The Power of Music Memories.  In 1962, " The Fantastiks" a small scale musical began a twenty year run, The song " Try To Remember" became a very popular song. It's message was that when we have a favorite song memory, it reminds us of who we are, where we've been and how our sense of self is shaped. Such familiar music becomes the soundtrack for a movie that starts playing in our head. The concluding lyric line states  "  Try to remember, And if you remember than follow, follow, follow." The song suggest that it's important and psychologically healthy to reflect on the memories evoked by music . Jerry Orbach was the leading man in the original 1962 production. Twenty years later, he performs the song on a television program He also become well known as a regular on the original Law AND Order series.

LINK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEW1F9kZ-UE

"CRAZY WORLD"- A HENRY MANCINI HIDDEN GEM

" Crazy World"- A Henry Mancini hidden gem. As a major film composer, Henry Mancini has a long list of hit songs that were first introduced in movies. "Two For The Road" ", Dear Heart", "Charade", and " Moon River" are just a few of his lasting song credits. In VICTOR  VICTORIA , starring Julie Andrews with Robert Preston and James Garner, Julie introduced "Crazy World" an elegiacand rueful commentary on the vagaries of love. Unlike many of Mancini's pure melodic creations, Crazy World does not adhere to the classic A A B A song structure. Instead the lengthy melody continues with little repetition of themes and more complex and entrancing harmonic treatment. It is  not an easy song to sing  but  Julie Andrews performed it beautifully in the film and in a subsequent stage version. Leslie Bricusse created the insightful lyrics for the Mancini melody. They fit like a glove.

The version heard here is by K.T.Sullivan, a classicly trained singer who has made the world of Cabaret her personal domain. She is also the Artistic Director of the Mabel Mercer Foundation whose mandate is to continue the rich artistic tradition of the legendary cabaret performer, Mabel Mercer. There is a vibrant and innovative cabaret tradition in NYC and other major US cities with new performers continuing to advance the pursuit of literate song performance.
K.T.Sullivan sings with the restrained passion that the song requires  supported by a wonderfully rhapsodic piano accompaniment.

LINK http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W8N5tiwdzs

PEARL BAILEY SINGS " DON'T LIKE GOODBYES " FROM " HOUSE OF FLOWERS"

Pearl Bailey Sings " Don't Like Goodbyes" from " House of Flowers."  As Pearl Bailey did in an earlier Arlen/ Mercer show " St. Louis Woman ", she portrayed a somewhat domineering yet comic presence on stage. Portraying a Madam of a bordello, she had a  commercial interest in her " ladies" as well as a certain rough-hewn affection for her "flowers" which is portrayed in a tender ballad " Don't Like Goodbyes."  Originally written for Otillie, the young girl in love with Royal, Pearl Bailey appropriated the song for herself. it is a gentle goodbye song that uses everyday speech patterns but as Jenness & Velsey report " The song has the familiar upward glide. on words that convey yearning like the last syllables of " Don't like goodbyes, tears or sighs,,"--- and a stunning  employing repeated notes on,first, the lowered 7, then the pure 7, before ending on the octave (note.)

 Bailey does manage to convey her genuine regret at Ottilie leaving her " House" and is an affecting and memorable performance of a song that should be a standard, especially since saying goodbye is such a universal and poignant experience.


LINK: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVM61ntxN90








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