GREAT MELODY, GREAT LYRIC, GREAT RENDITION

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT – A Time for Love

 

There are moments when I think that Tony Bennett is the greatest popular singer of them all – and that, as Sinatra said famously, “For my money Tony has the best voice in the business.”

Moments like this one, when Siriusly Sinatra channel 70 is playing Tony's definitive recording of A TIME FOR LOVE. With so many great Tony Bennett albums,  I didn't remember immediately which black vinyl LP of almost 60 years ago included this gem.

I spotted the Johnny Mandel arrangement (no other orchestrator sounds like him) but we needed a Wiki reminder that the 'dean' of arrangers, who left us three years ago, had composed the beautiful tune – to a lyric by a three-time, 'Best Original Song' Oscar-winner, Paul Francis Webster.

Yes, title track to an album which, since the last time I checked, has finally got a one-line entry at Wikipedia:

 

A Time for Love is a 1966 compilation album by Tony Bennett made of unreleased material recorded between 1960 and 1966 Recorded 1960-66 in Los Angeles, London and New York City.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko_QMd0ZBjQ

 

https://www.facebook.com/tonybennett

https://www.facebook.com/mark.blackburn.3910?comment_id=Y29tbWVudDo3Nzg5NDM3NTM1OTIyMTVfNjYyMzQ1MzQ1Njk1MTI2

 

 

 

Edited February 18, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT: The Music Never Ends

 

It doesn't seem like 16 years since I purchased what continues to be my all-time favorite musical biography --  a 2-disc DVD "Special Edition" of CLINT EASTWOOD PRESENTS TONY BENNETT: THE MUSIC NEVER ENDS. My favorite, not least for its highest quality production values. No surprise when you consider who filmed it, as a labor of love, sparing no expense in celebration of his good friend, Tony Bennett.

Disc 1 is a “Color & B/W Documentary – 125 minutes” with my favorite living actor Anthony Hopkins narrating.  Disc 2 is a superb – best of its kind – “Concert Performance” by Tony at the 2005 Monterey Jazz Festival. Clint was there that night and recalled to Tony how the outdoor audience "gasped when a full moon suddenly emerged from clouds at the exact moment when Tony sang, 'Fly me to the Moon!'

No single clip from this documentary could do it justice.  And yet, in barely 5 minutes, this one provides a good taste of what Tony had accomplished – just up to that point (2007) in his career.

Uploaded to YouTube (535,242 “views” since 2010) with the unassuming title, “Tony Bennett and Bill Evans with Johnny Carson 1975.”

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MselAkjXbM

 

 

Edited February 18, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

A documentary history -- 'Pianos and Greatest Blues Players' according to Clint Eastwood

The only person in Hollywood who could have produced, from start to finish (including clearances of copyrights) such an historic documentary – deeply informative, and a joy to watch. Five minutes in, his good friend Ray Charles shares insights we've never seen or heard elsewhere. Beginning around the 5:30 mark:

 

CLINT:   Do you remember his name? The boogie piano player who showed you how to play your first notes?

RAY:   Wiley Pitman. I could never forget his name! This guy was practicing …. and you know Clint, this shows you about people: He could have said, 'Get away from me kid – can't you see I'm practicing?' And I would have had to GO, 'cause I was taught to 'mind' grown people, regardless. But he didn't say that. I guess he thought that any kid that was willing to give up his play time, to come and listen to him, must really love music!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q763H0MBOrA

 

 

Edited February 18, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

JONI MITCHELL – Sometimes I'm Happy

It's quarter to three, there's no one in the place except you and me, and Siriusly Sinatra is playing my favorite version of SOMETIMES I'M HAPPY – the oldest song on her Both Sides Now album which just celebrated its 23^rd anniversary.

[I needed a Wiki reminder that this song was introduced nearly a century ago in a 1927 Broadway show by Stanley Holloway – the same “English actor” who would star, thirty years later, in My Fair Lady (1956) with two 'show-stoppers' – Wiv a Little Bit o' Luck, and Get Me to the Church on Time. Which won him a Tony theater award – and an Oscar-nomination for his celebrated movie performance.]

As for the song the Wiki list of singers and musicians, who've recorded Sometimes I'm Happy includes every single important recording artist you could name. But this one, by Joni Mitchell – backed by a 90-piece London-based symphony orchestra – is the most memorable.

Google for it and first up this day is this video – with terrific graphics – created by “Joni Journey” (10 years ago)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWkzGaK5fDA

 

 

Edited March 3, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

DIANA KRALL – Let's Face The Music And Dance

 

A propos what's playing right this minute on Siriusly Sinatra – my favorite rendition by Diana Krall of the most philosophical lyric ever composed for the Great American Songbook – Howard Dietz & Arthur Schwartz's LET'S FACE THE MUSIC AND DANCE.

Google to be reminded it's from my favorite early 'orchestral' album of hers (see previous page). First offering at YouTube this day, is this one – an old (2005) music video I've never seen! Cinematography of very high quality, alas uncredited.  This official version has 1,007,022 “views”. 

A warm weather jazz samba, on a day when, here in the coldest major city in the world (minus 35 windchill and the start of another blizzard)  I really needed this!

Thanks to channel 70's mind-reader programmer-extraordinaire 'Jersey Lou' Simon for brightening my day, warming my outlook -- again!  And thanks to Diana Krall for sharing.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLZfhHW98Os

 

 

Edited February 21, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

DIANA KRALL – Autumn in New York

 

And speaking of “Cinematography – of very high quality, alas uncredited” (see above) the intuitive genius that is YouTube just sent me another Diana Krall video – one seen by nearly 3 million fans, but not by me, until this minute.

Coincidentally (or not) I'd just been reflecting on how seemingly old-fashioned black & white photography – far from being outdated technology – can still mysteriously affect us emotionally in ways that color can't. Case in point.

Need I say, my new favorite version of 'Autumn in New York' – my favorite song composed (words and tune) by Vernon Duke “the summer of 1934.”

 

[An informed note with this video]

 

2,958,745 views Sep 25, 2020 #NewYorkCity #Jazz #MusicVideo

 

“Autumn in New York” – with breathtaking scenes of New York City filmed by Davis McCutcheon and directed by Mark Seliger – from Diana Krall’s new album ‘This Dream of You’, out now!

Musicians: Christian McBride - Bass, Russell Malone - Guitar. Strings arranged by Alan Broadbent.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5FVmJKPSrY

 

 

[Mark Blackburn]

WILLIE NELSON – Ain't Misbehavin'

 

After midnight, just checked to see what's playing on Siriusly Sinatra: I'm hearing the late, great blues piano giant Joe Sample accompanying Willie Nelson on Fats Waller's best tune, AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' – from my favorite of Willie's albums of jazz standards,  'American Classic' -- recorded 14 years ago when Willie was only 76 (my age now!).

 

Just re-reading at Wikipedia the “Personnel List” of jazz all-stars in the supporting cast:

 

Willie Nelson - guitar, vocals

• Joe Sample - piano, arrangements

• Norah Jones - piano, vocals

• Mickey Raphael - harmonica

• Diana Krall - piano, vocals

• Anthony Wilson - guitar

• Lewis Nash - drums

• Jeff Hamilton - drums

• Christian McBride - bass guitar

• Robert Hurst - bass guitar

• Jim Cox - Hammond B3 organ

• Jeff Clayton - alto saxophone

   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq6d4maW2Xg

 

 

Wikipedia - notes on the singer & the song:

 

American Classic is the 57th studio album by American country music artist Willie Nelson, released on August 25, 2009. It focuses on the American popular songbook and standard jazz classics, and includes guest appearances by Norah Jones and Diana Krall.

 

"Ain't Misbehavin'" is a 1929 stride jazz/early swing song. Andy Razaf wrote the lyrics to a score by Thomas "Fats" Waller and Harry Brooks[2] for the Broadway musical comedy play Connie's Hot Chocolates.

 

At the intermission of Hot Chocolates at the Hudson Theatre, Louis Armstrong made his Broadway debut playing a trumpet solo on the song.[144] Fats Waller's original instrumental recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1984.[77]

[Mark Blackburn]

JANIS IAN - I learned the truth at 76

On his weekly 1-hour live stream "It's 5 o'clock Somewhere" show, my favorite jazz singer / guitarist JOHN PIZZARELLI (at around the 15:40 mark) played my new favorite version of I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face. Then read my mind.  Permit a little background, please.

I spent the decade of the 70s in Bermuda, working in radio and television, and in 1975 I can remember a 'jazz vocal' hitting my ears like a breath of fresh air – Janis Ian's poignant ballad AT SEVENTEEN which climbed to the top of our pop chart.

I'm a guitarist and I can remember wondering if – at the end of the musical bridge – whether it was Janis herself playing a nylon-string guitar, for a quick sequence of nine notes, each one a chord. The orange label on the 45 rpm record said Janis had “arranged the horns.” But as to that lovely accompanying guitar? It only took half a century, until tonight, to 'learn the truth' (at 76).

At the end of a single chorus of I'VE GROWN ACCUSTOMED TO HER FACE, something makes John Pizzarelli add a comment: After noting “that one is from My Fair Lady” and that “a single chorus” (lasting just one minute) “doesn't seem enough,” John says to my utter delight,

“That reminds me … if any of you have Janis Ian's At Seventeen – and you hear the record – there's a little section, as it comes out of the instrumental [demonstrates that very sequence of nine notes played quickly as chords] “THAT lick,” John says, “played like that, twice – that's Bucky Pizzarelli.”

----

Search YouTube and there's this version, with the 45 rpm label, noting Janis Ian arranged the horns: Pick it up at the 3:00 mark – so those notes by Bucky tickle your ears at the 3:12 mark.
 

John Pizzarelli link -- tonight's show on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/JohnPizzarelliOfficial/videos/165626369573318

“That was lovely. That's a beautiful song,” says Jessica Molaskey after her hubby plays ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE.   Each time John plays it, it's better. This time at around the 34:14 mark. The composer Jerome Kern mistakenly believed that it was “too complex” ever to become popular: Easy to hum or whistle, yes – but a riot of modulations, key changes, that somehow, miraculously winds up back where it started out – in E-flat. John chose A-flat to match his high notes at the close.

I am in awe that John Pizzarelli can play this differently each time, with gorgeous chord sequences. This time he slowed it down at the end, closing out-of-tempo, rubato – just when your ear is craving such a more reverential ending. (My own family's favorite song.) Last time John played All The Things You Are, Jessica wondered whether it wasn't dated – the words by Oscar Hammerstein – reasoning that “People don't talk that way any more.” “WHAT??!!” said John at the time, feigning great shock and quoting the most poetic part of the lyric: “You are the promised kiss of Springtime that makes the lonely winter seem long!” Only the greatest song ever written.” This time Jessica said simply “That's a beautiful song.”

 

Edited February 24, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

PAUL MCCARTNEY – The Glory of Love

 

We were discussing 'great love songs' – my musical father and me, a few years before his death. I remember asking his opinion about 'As Time Goes By' – from a 1943 film that Dad always said, “captured, better than any other movie” the mood of that period; people desperate to escape 'occupied' Europe and North Africa – "the collective anxiety."
 

ME: Is it perhaps the greatest love song? 

DAD: Maybe the greatest song ever written ABOUT love.”

 

I'm thinking of the “other greatest song ABOUT love” – THE GLORY OF LOVE – playing right this minute on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio Paul McCartney and some stellar jazz musicians.

 

Coincidentally I'd just been re-reading my favorite part of Paul's liner notes for that 'Kisses On The Bottom' album of standards and should- have- been- standards that Paul's father Jim enjoyed. Recalling the origins of the project, Paul wrote:

"Eventually I just said, 'I really ought to do this, or I'll go off the idea and kick myself.' So I talked to a lady in our New York Office called Nancy Jeffries who knows all about the publishing side of the business and I said, 'If I was going to do it, who might I work with? Who might produce?' And she said, you should meet (producer) Tommy LiPuma. So I met with Tommy and he suggested Diana Krall.

 

QUESTION: Were songs like these among the first you ever learned to play?

PAUL: No I never learned how to play them. All I ever did was sing them at family sing-songs. There is this one song, HOME that I remember from my Dad's era. It's funny, when I suggested that one, Diana said, “Oh my gosh! I thought I was the only person on earth who knew that song!” And before The Beatles I actually used to do an instrumental version of it. I used to play a little guitar instrumental when me and John were just getting it together. So I had nice memories of that one.”

[Poised to leave a comment on this Grammy-winning video, I find my namesake has already reviewed it – twice!]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wksNI8b_jx0

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

JESSICA MOLASKEY - JOHN PIZZARELLI – I Want to be Happy

 

With its syncopated rhythm and catchy tune I WANT TO BE HAPPY is a song that stays with you (be warned) for hours, even days after you first hear it.

Composed almost a century ago by Vincent (Without a Song) Youmans to words by Irving Caesar – who made it in good health to age 101 – in part we may surmise, by composing a batch of happy songs circa 1925. Most notably, “Sometimes I'm Happy” (Sometimes I'm blue; my disposition depends on you). That's some people's favorite track on Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now' – Grammy-winning album of jazz standards which celebrated its 23^rd anniversary this month (see previous page).

If there'd been a poetry contest in 1925 requiring – “In 50 words or less” – the secret to happiness, these three stanzas would take the prize, no?

 

Life's really worth living, when we are mirth-giving
Why can't I give some to you?

 

When skies are gray, and you say, you are blue

I'll send the sun smiling through.

 

I want to be happy, but I won't be happy,

till I make you happy too!

 

I haven't checked to see which recording is most famous but can't imagine a more entertaining version than this – a live stream performance from my “other favorite musical couple.” I defy you to watch this and NOT be happy!

----

P.S. In answer to my question yesterday – when he scat sings in perfect unison with his guitar playing, which is coming first in his mind – vocal or guitar? John said “The guitar leads the voice.” His performance here is a 'best possible example' of this art.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz3nNYD_4I0&list=RDMz3nNYD_4I0

 

 

 

Edited February 26, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

JONI MITCHELL – Don't Worry 'Bout Me

 

Wayne Shorter has left us at age 89. Among my own favorites of his many contributions to Grammy-winning albums were those he recorded for Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now (2000) --  “tenor and soprano sax” solos on four tracks: YOU'VE CHANGED, ANSWER ME MY LOVE, A CASE OF YOU and DON'T WORRY 'BOUT ME.

Joni Mitchell's website recalls that Wayne Shorter's solos were “overdubbed later in Los Angeles” after Joni's return from London where she and arranger Vince Mendoza recorded the album “with a 90-piece symphony orchestra.”

Hard to pick just one favorite from that 'short list' featuring Wayne Shorter. But James Taylor selected 'Answer Me My Love' for a two-part, on-line British broadcast promoting his own AMERICAN STANDARD album -- which won, 20 years later, the same category of Grammy that Joni picked up for this album.

 

Coincidentally just yesterday, before we learned of Wayne Shorter's passing, Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio played Joni's Don't Worry 'bout Me. I was alone in the car and wondered aloud, “Now, is that one my favorite Wayne Shorter solo?”

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa8xeCgQAKo

 

 

Edited March 3, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

BOB DYLAN / FRANK SINATRA – Stay With Me

 

Quick, name a song that only Bob Dylan and Frank Sinatra ever recorded (no one else of any note). If you could answer “Stay With Me” you're likely a big fan (as I am) of lyricist Carolyn Leigh. Her “Young at Heart” was a million-seller for Sinatra at a time when he really needed a hit song, and Carolyn composed several of Frank's life-long favorites performed until the end of his career – such as “Witchcraft” and “The Best is Yet to Come” (the latter phrase Frank wanted inscribed on his tomb stone).

There came a day in late 1963 when Carolyn Leigh asked a favor of her good friend: Would Frank go into a studio immediately and record a song Carolyn had just co-written as the theme for an about-to-be-released Otto Preminger film, The Cardinal. The studio would have an orchestra ready and waiting, with an arrangement by its composer Jerome Moross. Frank agreed and requested the lyric ASAP. Recorded December 3, 1963 for release in January.

Flash forward half a century to 2015 when Bob Dylan included on his Shadows of the Night album. Remarkably, his small country jazz band replicates with amazing precision the original arrangement.

Let's play both, and include here the lyric Bob Dylan cherished for personal reasons (note below).

 

Should my heart not be humble Should my eyes fail to see

Should my feet sometimes stumble on the way, stay with me

Like the lamb that in springtime wanders far from the fold

Comes the darkness and the frost

I get lost I grow cold

 

I grow cold, I grow weary

And I know I have sinned

And I go, seeking shelter and I cry in the wind

 

Though I grope and I blunder

And I'm weak and I'm wrong

Though the road buckles under where I walk, walk along

Till I find to my wonder every path leads to Thee

All that I can do is pray, stay with me

Stay with me

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt1BBubMHzM&t=169s

 

 

Wikipedia

Shadows in the Night, Fallen Angels and Triplicate

In February 2015, Dylan released Shadows in the Night, featuring ten songs written between 1923 and 1963,[336][337] which have been described as part of the Great American Songbook.[338] All of the songs on the album had been recorded by Frank Sinatra, but both critics and Dylan himself cautioned against seeing the record as a collection of "Sinatra covers".[336][339] Dylan explained: "I don't see myself as covering these songs in any way. They've been covered enough. Buried, as a matter a fact. What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them. Lifting them out of the grave and bringing them into the light of day".[340] 

Shadows In the Night received favorable reviews, scoring 82 on the critical aggregator Metacritic, which indicates "universal acclaim".[341] Critics praised the restrained instrumental backings and the quality of Dylan's singing.[338][342] The album debuted at number one in the UK Albums Chart in its first week of release.[343]

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

LINDA LAVIN – Not a Care in the World [so] Shall We Dance

 

There are not many songs by Vernon Duke that I “never heard before this minute” – but one is playing right now on Siriusly Sinatra. Linda Lavin – an actress I always liked who's also a very good cabaret singer performing NOT A CARE IN THE WORLD in medley with another song I'd not heard before SHALL WE DANCE – not the famous song of the same name from The King and I but the video includes a note that this Shall We Dance is by George and Ira Gershwin.

Google for 'Not A Care In The World' and learn that it was composed by Vernon Duke (m) and John Latouche (w) – the same songwriters who penned one of my all-time favorite standards, 'Taking A Chance on Love.'

Don't you love what Linda Lavin does with words like these ….

 

Though skies are gray

I'm as gay as a Disney cow

Not a wrinkle upon my brow

Not a cent 'in the red'

not a care in the world.

 

Recalling 'Disney cows' – the cartoon variety, with big heads (and small udders) dancing in fields of clover. Such a carefree image. Thanks Linda Lavin for sharing this. And thank you 'Jersey Lou' Simon for including on your playlist.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRRt-C0POZ0

 

 

 

Edited March 7, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

OSCAR PETERSON – Little Girl Blue

 

Just Googled those five words (above) plus “YouTube” – and there it is: Not just the best instrumental version of a favorite song by my favorite composer Richard Rodgers; quite simply my favorite solo jazz piano recording of all time.

Recorded 55 years ago and yet the sound engineering quality has never been surpassed, you may agree!

From the album “My Favorite Instrument” (one I reviewed at Amazon 21 summers ago). Google to be reminded about “which German-made piano was Oscar playing here – a 'Hamburg' Steinway or a Bosendorfer?” Instant answer (the first of “90,200 results in 0.41 seconds”) from an English fan site, Jazzwise:

 

“Peterson never played better – something he would acknowledge in later years – than he did in the relaxed surroundings of Hans Brunner-Schwer's villa in the Black Forest, playing a concert grand Bösendorfer in his host's living room before a few invited guests. It seemed to bring the very best out of him, responding to the warmth and informality of the situation with some truly inspired playing.”

----

My Amazon review quoted from the liner notes of lyricist/composer Gene (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars) Lees. [5 stars and titled:]

 

 The greatest jazz piano album? It's more than that!

Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2002

"I have believed for many years that Oscar Peterson is not only the greatest pianist in jazz today, but the greatest it has ever known. The style is drawn from many sources including Nat King Cole, Art Tatum, George Shearing, James P. Johnson, and others. Oscar's awareness of jazz history is so great that I doubt there's anything in the tradition of jazz piano that he hasn't encompassed in his work. Oscar is the great eclectic of jazz piano. Bach was a great eclectic. History cares less who did something first than it does who did it best. Oscar does all the things his predecessors did, but better.

[Concerning this track Gene Lees added:]

 

"If I were told that I could have only one track out of the album, and all the rest would be destroyed, Little Girl Blue is the one I'd select" [before one final superlative:]

"I am tempted to say this is the greatest jazz piano album ever made. And maybe it is. But it's more than that. Said one fascinated musician on hearing it, 'This surpasses jazz.' So it does."

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoFc_YfU6Lk&list=PLvawd7NJB1dx2nSZwHWAYyXUm7idd0YDL&index=26

 

Edited March 8, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

PAUL MCCARTNEY – More I Cannot Wish You

 

Until Paul McCartney recorded MORE I CANNOT WISH YOU for his Grammy-winning 'Kisses On The Bottom' album (2012) this was a song with no Wiki entry of its own; Paul says in an impromptu introduction that, “It's a song I'd not heard ... because it didn't make it into the film version – only the stage version” (for the original Broadway cast recording of Guys and Dolls).

 

Since the last time I checked (“1 year ago”) someone has included a new Wiki footnote among the “Notable Recordings”:

 

• Paul McCartney recorded the song for his album "Kisses on the Bottom" (2012) and his version changed the lyrics slightly from "With a sheep’s eye / And a lickerish tooth" to "With a sheepish eye, / And a look of the truth."[11] Describing his interpretation McCartney said, "It's a father talking to his daughter.... quite moving, very moving."[12]

 

[Concerning the song's “development” there's another newer note:]

 

Frank Loesser originally wrote the song for the 1949 movie Roseanna McCoy. In a scene in which the title character sat next to her elder brother in a wagon seat, her brother was to sing the song to her, "wishing her good fortune in the heart."[5] When the song was cut from the movie, because producer Samuel Goldwyn "neither liked nor understood the song,"[5] Loesser added the song to Guys and Dolls.[6]

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPjw7pRims4&t=10s

 

 

P.S. At around the 13:47 mark on his latest live-streamed “5 o'clock Somewhere” show (3/09/2023) my favorite jazz singer / guitar virtuoso John Pizzarelli recalled that "we did this song with Paul McCartney.”

In fact, as the opening accompanist on the McCartney video, John's 7-string electric has never sounded better; his solo accompaniment at the start is a delight.  As is Diana Krall's Irish-style, ballad 'coda' at song's end.

 

https://www.facebook.com/JohnPizzarelliOfficial/videos/1217968908849431

 

 

 

Edited March 11, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

CALABRIA FOTI – Just One of Those Things

 

“A trip to the moon on gossamer wings – just one of those things ”

 

Favorite line from a Cole Porter tune that's been recorded by just about every important singer you could name since its introduction 80 years ago. But the version playing right now on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is by “my favorite living jazz singer” Calabria Foti.

Channel 70's programmer extraordinaire 'Jersey Lou' Simon introduced us to Calabria's greatness – and featured her on three “Playing Favorites” shows – the latest, this past Christmas. Now, on the eve of my 76^th birthday (just for me, I'd like to think) they've been playing one or two of her recordings each day.

This one's from her Cole Porter tribute album, In The Still Of The Night (2017). All the Amazon reviews (including my own) were chock full of superlatives about Calabria's singing – that would be hard to live up-to, if they were not the simple truth: She IS that good, you may agree!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YPxIw-ABek

 

 

[Amazon editorial review:]

 

Stunning vocalist Calabria Foti sings the songs of Cole Porter, revealing his most intimate, heartfelt, and vulnerable emotions. Backed by New York based chamber band guitarist Gene Bertoncini, clarinetist Eddie Daniels, cellist Richard Locker, bassist, Ike Sturm, drummer, Jared Schonig, and trombonist, Bob McChesney, "In the Still of the Night" is beautifully arranged by Grammy and Emmy winning producer and pianist Michael Patterson.

 

This album follows up Calabria Foti's highly acclaimed CD, "A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening", and the Grammy nominated, "Let's Fall in Love" with Seth MacFarlane.

 

About the recording of "In the Still of the Night", Foti says,

 

". . . singing these songs I felt that I was peeking into Porter's soul, telling the stories of his life, singing his words, feeling his longing for love, wearing his his heart on his sleeve."

 

The feel of this record is reminiscent of a private soiree in the late 20s, as if the listener has been invited to a salon concert in someone's parlor. It's intimate, easy listening, with tender vocals and jazzy instrumentals.

 

----

 

The spotlight customer review at Amazon by “Rebecca” declares Calabria Foti “the new best friend of the Great American Songbook” [5 stars and titled:]

 

 Ear Candy

Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2018

Verified Purchase

I have totally enjoyed listening to Calabria Foti’s wonderful albums and [on this one] her vocal artistry is beyond beautiful. She can make even the most obscure Cole Porter song come alive. She stands out as one of the best female jazz singers of all-time and truly deserves a Grammy recognition. Apart from being a great singer, she is also a remarkable violin player. I have watched one of her live concerts and I could attest that she is a total performer on stage or studio recording.

This [album] also boasts the outstanding works of soloists …. Eddie Daniels on clarinet, Bob McChesney on trombone, Richard Locker on cello and Ike Sturm on bass. The other musicians are Gene Bertoncini on guitar and arranger Michael Patterson on piano.

In my opinion, Calabria Foti is the new Best Friend of the Great American Songbook ….

 

 

Edited March 12, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[samserv]

On 2/17/2023 at 2:50 PM, Mark Blackburn said:

TONY BENNETT – A Time for Love

 

There are moments when I think that Tony Bennett is the greatest popular singer of them all – and that, as Sinatra said famously, “For my money Tony has the best voice in the business.”

Moments like this one, when Siriusly Sinatra channel 70 is playing Tony's definitive recording of A TIME FOR LOVE. With so many great Tony Bennett albums,  I didn't remember immediately which black vinyl LP of almost 60 years ago included this gem.

I spotted the Johnny Mandel arrangement (no other orchestrator sounds like him) but we needed a Wiki reminder that the 'dean' of arrangers, who left us three years ago, had composed the beautiful tune – to a lyric by a three-time, 'Best Original Song' Oscar-winner, Paul Francis Webster.

Yes, title track to an album which, since the last time I checked, has finally got a one-line entry at Wikipedia:

 

A Time for Love is a 1966 compilation album by Tony Bennett made of unreleased material recorded between 1960 and 1966 Recorded 1960-66 in Los Angeles, London and New York City.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko_QMd0ZBjQ

 

https://www.facebook.com/tonybennett

https://www.facebook.com/mark.blackburn.3910?comment_id=Y29tbWVudDo3Nzg5NDM3NTM1OTIyMTVfNjYyMzQ1MzQ1Njk1MTI2

 

 

 

 

[Mark Blackburn]

DINAH SHORE / FRANK SINATRA – They Can't Take That Away From Me

 

Bob Dylan's Facebook page (where I am suddenly this day a “Top Fan”) just shared a photo – of Bob with Dinah Shore, from the night of his induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Wonder how many of Bob's younger fans would recognize that beautiful smile and 'put a name to that face' of someone who was for a time television's most beloved variety show host. Coincidentally or not, I'd just been humming the melody to the words that Dinah sang each week to open her top-rated TV variety show, urging us to “See the U-S-A, in your Chevrolet!”

 

I'd just been thinking of my favorite duet from the early days of black & white television – Dinah and her guest Frank Sinatra singing my favorite Gershwin tune, They Can't Take That Away From Me.

 

Besides that most beautiful smile Dinah Shore had the most endearing laugh on television: Even when she tried to suppress it – as when Frank says brightly, “It's a switchblade!” in answer to Dinah's line about “the way you hold your knife."

Is it at YouTube -- an old black & white video from over 60 years ago?  Even better: Posted in color! Color TV, 1959?  There's a story there ....

 

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TRISHA YEARWOOD -- I'll Be Seeing You

 

Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is playing a favorite track from Trisha Yearwood's Sinatra tribute album, recorded at the Capitol records 'tower studios' in Hollywood.

Coincidentally, a friend and fellow alumnus of the (now defunct) Sinatra Family dot com website just shared a link about the soon-to-open 'Sinatra Bar & Lounge' in Nashville. To celebrate its opening next month Trisha Yearwood will be the first artist to perform there.

 

As part of the private, invite-only April 14 grand opening, SiriusXM’s Siriusly Sinatra channel will present a live special featuring multi-award-winning country superstar Trisha Yearwood. "Let’s Be Frank with Trisha Yearwood LIVE from Sinatra Bar & Lounge in Nashville, Tennessee” will air from 6 - 8 p.m. CST, and will include interviews and performances, along with several selections from Yearwood’s 2019 tribute album Let’s Be Frank and other Sinatra tracks.
 

 

Trisha Yearwood has lived in Nashville for most of her adult life and in recent years has been joined by a lot of singers and musicians who've moved there from California; among them, my favorite living jazz singer Calabria Foti.

 

In a recent live performance in small town California my favorite living guitar virtuoso from Tennessee Doyle Dykes remarked on this fact: “I've met quite a few people” in the past year or two, who have made the move to Tennessee!”

 

Check YouTube to find my namesake reviewed this “official” YouTube video “three years ago” and noting that

 

Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is playing Trisha Yearwood's 'favorite cut' on her new “Let's Be Frank” album – recorded with a 55 piece symphony orchestra arranged by Vince Mendoza: not in Nashville, where today's Town Hall was recorded before a live audience, hosted by Sirius programmer 'Jersey Lou' Simon

 

Trisha explains that “Nashville is where I've lived since age 19 – where I've recorded 99 per cent of my music – but to get that vibe, I had to go to Hollywood, to the Capitol Tower – a living museum," says Trish. "Sitting on the bar stool where Frank sat, singing into his (Neumann) mic.”

 

What's your favorite track on the album, asked a woman in the studio audience. You could tell Trisha didn't want to single out just one favorite, but “thinking of my Mom and Dad who have passed, I had Mom in mind when I sang I'LL BE SEEING YOU” and she's the reason it's the closing track.”

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk3jTlt2Qss

 

 

 

[Mark Blackburn]

DOYLE DYKES – Riding to Circle Pines (and) What a Friend

 

“A song I just finished,” says Doyle. “I call it RIDING TO CIRCLE PINES. Circle Pines is where this guitar was made.”

It's a 'James Olson' instrument that Doyle calls his 'J-T' model – “same as the one James Taylor plays, with Brazilian Rosewood (back and sides) and a cedar top.”

After playing for comparison his similarly-shaped Gibson 185 – and before he begins to play 'Riding to Circle Pines' (at around the 5:34 mark) Doyle notes the similarities between a Minnesota made 'James Olson' neck and the one designed for the world's finest nylon-string acoustic electrics made by California's 'Kirk Sand.'

A song with a beautiful opening verse, as well as a bridge / release reminiscent of James Taylor songs – meaning it soars away in a new direction, taking our hearts with it.

Stay tuned (around the 10:34 mark) for What a Friend We Have in Jesus – a 160 year old hymn that's been recorded by other finger-style virtuosos, including Australia's Tommy Emmanuel and England's Martin Taylor. Doyle's rendition is more fully developed, including as it does, an opening verse and closing coda he composed.

The song's Wiki entry notes that the words of the hymn were “composed in Canada in 1855” and the famous melody was added in 1868 (note below).

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ITagobnJts

 

Wikipedia

"What a Friend We Have in Jesus" is a Christian hymn originally written by preacher Joseph M. Scriven as a poem in 1855 to comfort his mother, who was living in Ireland while he was in Canada.[2] Scriven originally published the poem anonymously, and only received full credit for it in the 1880s.[3] The tune to the hymn was composed by Charles Crozat Converse in 1868.

Renditions [edit]

• Washington Phillips, as "Jesus Is My Friend" (1928, Columbia Records)[5][6]

• Bing Crosby (1951, Beloved Hymns)

• Tennessee Ernie Ford (1958, Nearer the Cross, Capitol Records)

• Rosemary Clooney (1959, Hymns from the Heart, MGM Records)

• The Stanley Brothers (1960)

• Reno & Smiley and the Tennessee Cut-Ups (1963)

• Ella Fitzgerald with the Ralph Carmichael Choir (1967, Brighten the Corner)

• Thurl Ravenscroft (1970, Great Hymns In Story and Song)

• Aretha Franklin (1972, Amazing Grace)

• Mahalia Jackson Gospels, Spirituals, and Hymns.

• Ike & Tina Turner (1974, The Gospel According to Ike & Tina)

• Lester Flatt & and the Nashville Grass (1975), the LP Flatt Gospel. Also performed by Flatt & Scruggs while Flatt and Earl Scruggs played together.

• Bill Monroe (Bear Family (German) BCD-16639 My Last Days On Earth 1981-1994

• Wade and Julia Mainer with unknown musicians (1989)

• Glen Campbell (1989, Favorite Hymns)

• Driving Miss Daisy (1989) sung at Little Friendship Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia

• The John Tesh Project (2000, Pure Hymns)[7]

• Amy Grant recorded it as part of the medley "What a Friend We Have in Jesus/Old Rugged Cross/How Great Thou Art" on her 2002 studio album Legacy... Hymns and Faith, and later included on her 2015 compilation album Be Still and Know... Hymns & Faith.

• Alan Jackson (2006, Precious Memories)

• Brad Paisley (2008, Play)

• Ronnie Milsap (2009, Then Sings My Soul)

• Hugh Laurie (2013, Didn't It Rain as "Changes" by Alan Price)

• Monty Alexander (2013, Uplift 2)[8]

• Perkins Twins (2018)

 

 

Edited March 20, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

SINATRA – As Time Goes By

At this moment Siriusly Sinatra is playing the definitive version of AS TIME GOES BY. Half a lifetime ago (I'm 76) my generation was introduced to this one by Harry Nilsson – on his A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night album – with London Symphony musicians arranged and conducted by one of Sinatra's great arrangers Gordon Jenkins. Described on Harry's black vinyl LP album cover as perhaps “the greatest love song” of them all. Or as my late father said, “Maybe the best song ABOUT love.”

The version playing right now on channel 70 is from Sinatra's final album with Capitol records Point of No Return – with what turned out to be the final arrangements by Axel Stordahl who was with Sinatra in the 1940s and died of cancer soon after this recording in 1962.

For his understated string arrangement, Mr. Stordahl allowed the opening and closing bars to be performed as solo accompaniment by Sinatra's career-long pianist Bill Miller. So. Sinatra – at the peak of his vocal powers and …. well, really – how could anyone improve on this?

The song's Wiki entry is suddenly larger than I remember, with some interesting new notations about the composer. (below).

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNuQ1l45DTQ

Wikipedia

"As Time Goes By" is a jazz song written by Herman Hupfeld in 1931. It became famous when it featured in the 1942 Warner Bros. film Casablanca, performed by Dooley Wilson as Sam. The song was voted No. 2 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs special, commemorating the best songs in film[1] (surpassed only by "Over the Rainbow" by Judy Garland).

Background[edit]

Herman Hupfeld wrote "As Time Goes By" for the Broadway musical Everybody's Welcome which opened on October 31, 1931.

The song was re-introduced in the 1942 film Casablanca where it was sung by Sam, portrayed by Dooley Wilson. Sam's piano accompaniment was played by a studio pianist, Jean Vincent Plummer.[5][6][7] The melody is heard throughout the film as a leitmotif.[8] Wilson was unable to make a commercial recording of the song at the time due to the 1942–44 musicians' strike. Unable to record new versions of the song, RCA Victor reissued the 1931 recording by Rudy Vallée, which became a number one hit eleven years after it was originally released.

Hupfeld lived his whole life in Montclair, New Jersey, and was a regular customer at the Robin Hood Inn (now the Valley Regency), a tavern built in 1922 on Valley Road, then part of Upper Montclair. He spent many hours at the piano and wrote several of his songs in this tavern. A plaque on the second floor of the Valley Regency Catering Facility in Clifton, New Jersey, commemorates the song. He wrote over one hundred songs, including "Let's Put Out the Lights and Go to Sleep," and the popular Great Depression song "Are You Making Any Money?"[11]

 

Edited March 21, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

JOHN PIZZARELLI – As Time Goes By

 

As if speaking to me personally (at the 21:24 mark) and saying: 'Maybe you'll like my version best!' John Pizzarelli plays AS TIME GOES BY better than I've ever heard it! Including the seldom-heard, longish opening verse – John's chord sequences are simply brilliant – an arrangement all his own – right through to a little coda at song's end – consisting of the first ten notes of the French national anthem (a musical motif heard throughout the movie Casablanca). Yes indeed – “my new favorite version” of what my own musical father dubbed “Maybe the best song ever written ABOUT love.”

 

Just one of umpteen 'highlights' this week, on a terrific 'short' program (37 minutes) Show No. 122. John tells us he won't be doing another live show until after “a one-week engagement at Birdland” to celebrate the release of (his latest CD) 'Stage & Screen'.”

 

Stay tuned five minutes later, for an achingly beautiful but seldom-heard ballad – THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL: film composer David Raksin's “other best melody” (after 'Laura' with Johnny Mercer). From a 1952 Kirk Douglas movie of that name.

 

At song's end, John disarmingly attributes the arrangement to one of his father Bucky's jazz guitarist friends, Barry Galbraith – who left us 40 years ago at age 63. I imagine Barry looking down and smiling joyfully, at John's ability to listen to Barry's 1958 recording and then instantly transcribe it to perfection on 7-string guitar.

 

Around the 24:19 mark immediately following his best version yet of 'One Note Samba' John launches straightaway into The Bad and The Beautiful.

 

Compelled to single out John's (2) show-closers – favorite songs by my two favorite composers Richard Rodgers and Harry Warren: The More I See You (a favorite of John's mother's) follows an exquisite rendition of This Nearly Was Mine. Starting at around the 33:15 mark – this after John's best-ever rendition (I say) of Rodgers & Hammerstein's You've Got to be Carefully Taught – from the same Broadway show that gave us This Nearly Was Mine, South Pacific.

https://www.facebook.com/JohnPizzarelliOfficial

Is the Barry Galbraith arrangement/recording of The Bad and The Beautiful at YouTube?  Yes!  

 

Edited April 8, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

Tomorrow (Sunday 4/16/2023) John will be at New York's 92nd Street Y to “see a classical guitarist live, for the first time in my life – Pepe Romero” (a Spanish-born classical and flamenco virtuoso now in his 80th year).

Contrast that sedate image with the most frenetic performance of COFFEE IN A CARDBOARD CUP – a Kander & Ebb show tune from a long-forgotten Broadway show, '70 Girls 70' – by John Kander and Fred Ebb who, more famously, gave Liza and Frank one of their shared signature tunes, 'New York, New York').

A really witty song, and to perform this 'live' at this pace (without evident mistakes) just takes your breath away. Beginning around the 27:09 mark, and within a minute, John is double-timing it – and within another minute, accelerating the tempo to the max.

“Whoo!” says Jessica. “Next time – de-caf! How you DO that!?”

John admits he is pleased, saying: “That was MUCH better than I played it on the radio the other day!”

https://www.facebook.com/JohnPizzarelliOfficial/videos/247849714274809

 

P.S.  The pioneering greats on 7-string guitar – John's father Bucky and the 'father' of the instrument itself, George Van Eps – I imagine looking down in amazement at what John does with Cole Porter's Night and Day (around the 37:29 mark). It's not just that “every note's a chord” but where John would normally play single, melodic lines of improvisation – those too become flurries of little chords, of such devilishly-difficult complexity you realize that only John Pizzarelli could conceive and play them with such apparent ease.

Love the moment (around the 39:50 mark) when John realizes he's split a nail – fumbling with a cell phone before the show. “That was the song I needed that nail-for – it made it – it survived.” Jessica adds: "Linda White says, 'Put that arrangement on your next album' and I agree!"

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

FREDDY COLE – Once in a While / I'm Not My Brother, I'm Me

 

When he left us, two summers ago at age 88, Freddy Cole left behind a delightful musical legacy. He outlived his more famous older brother by half-a-century and made enough fine recordings – mostly of great songs Nat Cole overlooked or never got around to recording, before dying much too young of cancer.

Thankfully for us fans, Freddy Cole gets regular appreciation on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio; as I type this he is singing my new favorite version of ONCE IN A WHILE.

Freddy was a terrific blues pianist but on this recording his piano accompanist is Bill Charlap (who picked up a Grammy with Tony Bennett six years ago for their 'alone together' Jerome Kern tribute album, “Silver Linings”). Great accompanists know just what to play (and what to leave out) and make it sound so easy, don't they?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jdEAElkXwk

 

 

Google for Freddy Cole 'live' and the first offering this day is this, from “PlanBPro” 

178,859 views Dec 21, 2006

Freddy Cole performs his popular song "I'm Not My Brother, I'm Me" during a performance in New York City in 2005. This performance was photographed by filmmaker Clay Walker for the documentary "The Cole Nobody Knows" which can be seen here - https://vimeo.com/claywalker/freddycole

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7sc1V02dLk&t=51s

 

As if to say "Remember this?" (I don't) the intuitive genius at YouTube just sent me links to these words of praise for Freddy Cole [posted "January 28, 2020"]

"I've been HIT by the great Freddy Cole!"

"I was hummin' a tune, drinkin' in sunshine, when out of an orange-colored sky .... "

Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio introduces us to lesser-known artists, such as Nat King Cole's kid brother, Freddy -- who in turn, does duets with terrific, up-and-coming artists like Deborah Silver.

Coincidentally (or not) the shuffle play miracle at YouTube, sent me a 1992 concert performance by Freddy's late niece Natalie – singing her Dad's hit ORANGE COLORED SKY. Natalie's version is still my favorite.

The next offering? Freddy Cole singing this one with Deborah Silver – whose vocal timbre and athleticism is remarkably like . . . Natalie!

One good link leads to another and a Facebook friend – and fellow fan of Steve Tyrell – sent me a video preview of this very recording – with Mr. Tyrell joking with Mr. Cole about the best approach to a fast part of the lyric. Links to both below; the studio recording is the second one, uploaded by Ms Silver (to 447 “views” and zero comments). A joyful duet, you may agree!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYvR...q5MD5zkbCpFJHM

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

Edited April 21, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT – Young and Foolish (original 'orchestral' version)

 

As it so often does, Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is at this moment, introducing me to a “new favorite” version of a song Tony Bennett made most memorable in his mid-1970s recordings with pianist Bill Evans. One of my favorite of their 'alone together' renditions; the version playing on channel 70 right now though is “orchestral.” Google to learn it's from his 1963 album “This is All I Ask” – Tony and the Ralph Sharon Trio with vocal chorus and orchestra arranged and conducted by Ralph Burns.

Is it at YouTube? But of course! Thanks to Siriusly Sinatra's programmer extraordinaire 'Jersey Lou' Simon for sharing this gem right this minute.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYzQ7HmRW5U

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Mark Blackburn