GREAT MELODY, GREAT LYRIC, GREAT RENDITION

[Mark Blackburn]

BARBARA COOK – I Had Myself a True Love

I'm listening to channel 70 Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio – Barbra Streisand singing what turns out to be a Johnny Mercer song I can't recall ever hearing before this moment: I HAD MYSELF A TRUE LOVE.

Sounds like a Black operetta tune Gershwin could have composed for Porgy and Bess. Google to learn it was from a similarly-themed Broadway Show (as old as me) – 'St. Louis Woman' with Johnny Mercer lyrics set to [mostly] not-so-memorable melodies by Harold (Over the Rainbow) Arlen. [They wrote some major hits together.]

No Wikipedia entry for this song, but there's a website “International Lyrics Playground” that tells us:

“From the production-troubled Broadway musical ‘St Louis Woman’ March 1946. This musical was based on the African-American poet Arna Bontemps’ novel “God Sends Sunday’ written in 1931. Some consider this soundtrack the best of the Arlen/Mercer duo …. “

[Plus a note about female singers who tried to rescue “I Had Myself a True Love” from oblivion:]

“Barbra Streisand 1964. Also sung by: Dinah Shore, Barbara Cook, Audra McDonald and many others... “

Barbara Cook has always been my favorite Broadway singer – ever since she played 'Marian the Librarian' in The Music Man. Her warm and wonderful voice left us the summer of 2017 (“respiratory failure” at age 89).

Google for Barbara Cook's version. Lo and behold! At a moment when I was thinking that Stephen Sondheim might have composed this one – there's a 'live' performance by Barbara, for her one-woman show celebrating “Mostly Sondheim” – his songs and “some Stephen wished he had written.” Posted to YouTube September, 2021 by someone called “Some Days You're Barbra” (with a Streisand avatar) and the informed note (below).

Barbara Cook - Mostly Sondheim - I Had Myself A True Love: The legendary star of Broadway's "Music Man," "She Loves Me" and Candide" sings the songs of Stephen Sondheim and songs he wished he had written. Recorded live in true Dolby 5.1 multi-track surround sound, this 86 minute program captures the unmatched performance of one of America's most gifted artists. Accompanied by longtime musical director Wally Harper, Barbara Cook performs a memorable evening of songs by the great Stephen Sondheim mixed with songs Sondheim has said he wished he had written. It's a unique musical celebration The New York Times calls "brilliant...transcendent...you may find yourself holding your breath in awe!" As The Times of London recently declared (2003) :

"Barbara Cook is the greatest theatrical singer in concert at the moment." Barbara Cook continues to perform MOSTLY SONDHEIM to critical acclaim and sold-out houses. Set list:

1. Everybody Says Don't 2. Buds Won't Bud 3. I Wonder What Became Of Me? 4. The Eagle and Me 5. I Had Myself a True Love 6. Another Hundred People / So Many People 7. In Buddy's Eyes 8. I Got Lost In His Arms 9. You Can't Get a Man With a Gun 10. Medley: Hard Hearted Hannah / Waiting for the Robert E. Lee / San Francisco 11. When In Rome (I Do As the Romans Do) 12. Happiness 13. Loving You 14. You Could Drive a Person Crazy 15. Send in the Clowns 16. Ice Cream (Vanilla) 17. Not a Day Goes By / Losing My Mind 18. The Trolley Song 19. Anyone Can Whistle

[Included with video, an Amazon review I wish I'd written:]

'Barbara Cook's magnificent Mostly Sondheim concert is more than a tribute to the greatest Broadway composer of the late 20th century. It's also a tribute to the performer herself, the premier leading lady of her generation and a consummate cabaret artist. Accompanied by longtime musical director Wally Harper, Cook winds through such Sondheim selections as "Everybody Says Don't" and "Send in the Clowns." But the 86-minute program was suggested by a 1999 New York Times article by Sondheim entitled "Songs I Wish I Had Written," so it also includes non-Sondheim songs such as "I Got Lost in His Arms" and "The Trolley Song" plus peak moments from Cook's career (She Loves Me's "Ice Cream" and Follies in Concert's "Losing My Mind"). By the time she closes with a stunning a cappella "Anyone Can Whistle," the transfixed audience is sorry that it's over, but grateful they were there.'

– David Horiuchi

Edited December 14, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

NATALIE COLE – He Was Too Good To Me

It's one of those days when every single song being played on Siriusly Sinatra is a personal favorite!

To take just one (from the past hour) -- a track I singled out for special mention in an Amazon review (2005) for Natalie Cole's STARDUST album (maybe my favorite) – Rodgers & Hart's 'He Was Too Good To Me.' An album that went “platinum” (certified sales of 1 million) in the U.S. alone. Today it has a lengthy Wikipedia entry (below).

Concerning “Track 8” arranged by Rob Mounsey “trumpet solo by Wynton Marsalis” I said in my Amazon review that year [5-stars and titled “Story telling never got better!”]

If you love great old songs (including obscure, should-have-been-standards-that-somehow-got-overlooked) then you will love this album -- which is "five star" in every respect.

And if great albums, deserve great liner notes, then Nat King Cole's best friend Dick La Palm (who Natalie recalls "has known me since I was born") deserves to have won the "Grammy," (if there were such a category, when this album was released).

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"Tell me a story" Dick La Palm quotes Lester Young as saying --- by way of advice to up-and-coming jazz musicians: Meaning, `Give me more than just the notes.' If the sax giant were still around today to hear Natalie Cole's delivery of Rodgers & Hart's "He Was Too Good to Me" (my favorite here) Lester would surely bestow his benediction on Natalie Cole as a great story teller in song.

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Just this week, Natalie told fans (at a forum devoted to her music) that "My (only) instrument is my voice." Well, her instrument is the best in the business - according to the "Who's Who" of musicians, arrangers and producers involved in this classic album. Truly, Natalie Cole is a `musician's musician' whose greatest admirers include some jazz giants -- who went out of their way to make this album the best of its kind (rivaled in greatness only by Natalie's multi-platinum "Unforgettable" which preceded this one, and the subsequent "Ask a Woman Who Knows").

One of the album's (three) co-producers Phil Ramone, noted that Natalie was her own executive producer and took complete charge of the album's `concept.' She consulted with her producers - (the others were David Foster and George Duke) - but then, Ramone says, "She challenged everything I believe in musically." Even more significantly, Ramone noted: "Rarely (do) the musicians hang around long after the session is over." (They always did for Sinatra and they did it here for Natalie.) Ramone said, the all-star cast of musical greats "thanked (me) profusely for being called to (this) date. Clearly I was not the only one moved by her."

Featured soloists included giants of the trumpet, harmonica, piano, guitar and saxophone --- Wynton Marsalis, Toots Thielemans, Bob James, Lee Ritenour and Michael Brecker. The stellar cast of (nine) arrangers was headed by the current dean of orchestrators, Johnny Mandel (who arranged an updated "Silent Night" on Frank Sinatra's 2004 Christmas Collection). There is even a snippet of Nat Cole's original Hammond organ solo (from 1961) on Natalie's powerhouse update of Irving Berlin's "Let's Face the Music and Dance."

There are too many highlights to list here - but Natalie herself singled out one or two of the solos in her full page of (small print) `Thank You's.' In praising the greatest harmonica player who ever lived, Toots Thielemans, Natalie said -- of his breathtakingly beautiful contribution to the Victor Young classic "Love Letters": "You have brought just the right touch of grace and style to this music. I am honored."

And of trumpet giant Wynton Marsalis' "dazzling" solos in the middle and at the end of "He Was Too Good to Me" Natalie said simply, "It brings me to my knees."

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Her great father's best friend deserves the last word, when he observes that "Songs of love - requited or unrequited -- don't come any better than these!"

"Each deals with passion deftly; lightly enough to fit neatly into thirty-two bars; heavily enough to elicit sighs and tears from the ladies, and even a twinge or two from the gentlemen. "The Torch" (in these songs) is carried on the INSIDE. And so is the heat. (Only) the surface is cool!"

Wikipedia note:

Stardust is a studio album by American singer Natalie Cole, released on September 24, 1996. Cole won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for the song "When I Fall in Love", a duet with Nat King Cole, at the 39th Grammy Awards.[3]

The song also won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement with Accompanying Vocal(s) for arrangers Alan Broadbent and David Foster.[4] The album was nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance.

 

Edited December 4, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

BARBARA COOK & JAMES TAYLOR  -- Not While I'm Around (live at Carnegie Hall)

I just posted elsewhere this day an appreciation of Barbara Cook whose lovely voice left us four summers ago. I'd been guided to a video of her one-woman show -- live excerpts -- celebrating Stephen Sondheim "his songs and those Stephen wished that he had written." A fellow alumnus at the now defunct Sinatra Family Forum website -- a fellow James Taylor fan "Melanie G-H" -- just responded with a "don't forget this one" message.

 

 

Edited December 4, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT – My Heart Stood Still

Hit the “back 1 hr” button on Siriusly Sinatra – and it's a favorite recording of Tony Bennett's from 45 years ago – my “other favorite version” of my favorite Rodgers & Hart song MY HEART STOOD STILL. [The definitive, full blown symphonic rendition, with a 70 piece orchestra is still my favorite track, from my favorite album, by Frank -- “The Concert Sinatra”] But here, for Tony, the 'orchestra' is led by cornet great Ruby Braff and a guitar hero of mine -- George Barnes who rivaled Les Paul for brilliant multi-tracking recordings of Gibson electric guitars. Here, I remember, George accompanied Tony on his then new signature model “Guild.”

[Footnote: George Barnes died one year after this recording, in September of 1977, age 56. Ruby Braff left us, at age 75, in February 2003.]

No specifics at Wikipedia, but one website “Discogs” has complete details on this album titled “Tony Bennett Sings Rodgers & Hart” – plus an informed comment from a kindred spirit:

gboe Jul 14, 2014

Far less known and acknowledged than the Tony Bennett & Bill Evans album recorded the year before this, but personally I favor this a lot more. The intimacy in this trio setting - bass, guitar and Ruby Braff here and there on trumpet is much more evident than the Evans sessions. This one has warmth, swing, and joy while the Evans session IMO never made that happen between the Las Vegas entertainer and the sophisticated jazz virtuoso.

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An official version (from The Complete Improv Recordings) was posted to YouTube by Tony Bennett three years ago, alas “comments turned off” which may explain the one 'thumbs up' (I think it's mine!) and 47 “views. It deserves more, you may agree.

The goose bump inducing 'definitive' recording -- for what Sinatra said was his favorite Reprise album recorded on a huge MGM sound stage (using 35 mm film/tape) in long ago 1963. The official version posted to YouTube in 2018 includes the then- recently re-mastered CD with a blurry cover note about it being 73 musicians recorded on “8 tracks on a 21 position mixer on the Goldwyn sound stage in Hollywood.”

 

 

P.S. Still my favorite Sinatra recording. Period. Delighted too, that my favorite singer/songwriter/guitarist James Taylor included My Heart Stood Still on his Grammy-winning AMERICAN STANDARD (2020) album.

Posted with an informed note by James Taylor "1 year ago" that the song "“My Heart Stood Still” was written for the revue One Dam Thing After Another which opened at the London Pavilion on May 19, 1927. "

 

This track was recorded in Nashville with my 'other favorite'  living fiddler Stuart Duncan and Dobro great Jerry Douglas.  Alison Krauss' older brother "Viktor" on acoustic bass. 

 

 

Edited December 5, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

PERRY COMO – Not While I'm Around

Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio (now channel 70) just played “Perry Como – Not While I'm Around” – the tender ballad from Stephen Sondheim's macabre musical Sweeney Todd (a show about a barber who slits the throats of his customers and consumes their flesh in 'meat pies') Not everyone's cup of tea. Certainly not Perry Como's (though a professional barber himself in his teenage years!). Perry loved this song enough to record it in early 1980, a few months after Sweeney Todd had opened on Broadway.

 

Just had to re-visit Como's extensive Wikipedia entry (one of the largest for any popular singer with a couple of hundred footnotes). There's an interesting addition -- excerpts from liner notes written for a Como album by a favorite musical historian – the late Canadian-born lyricist Gene (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars) Lees:

"There was another side to Perry Como that Gene Lees described in his sleeve note to Como's 1968 album Look To Your Heart:[105]

 

Despite his immense popularity, Como is rarely given credit for what, once you stop and think of it, he so clearly is: one of the great singers and one of the great artists of our time.

Perhaps the reason people rarely talk about his formidable attributes as a singer is that he makes so little fuss about them. That celebrated ease of his has been too little understood.

Ease in any art is the result of mastery over the details of the craft. You get them together to the point where you can forget about how you do things and concentrate on what you are doing.

Como got them together so completely that the muscles don't even show. It seems effortless, but a good deal of effort has gone into making it seem so. Como is known to be meticulous about rehearsal of the material for an album. He tries things out in different keys, gives the song thought, makes suggestions, tries it again, and again, until he is satisfied. The hidden work makes him look like Mr. Casual, and too many people are taken in by it—but happily so.

—Gene Lees, sleeve note, Look To Your Heart

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I remember my musical father (a Church of England / Anglican / agnostic) listening with enjoyment to Perry Como's once-a-year Christmas performance of “Ave Maria” – though, like most of us, Dad never knew the English words for the 'Hail Mary'. The Wiki notes say Perry Como never performed the hymn at public concerts (“it's not the proper place for it”) despite the fact it was perennially “the most requested song” on his long-running TV show. Near the end of his Wiki entry on notes about his Catholic faith there is this:

 

Filming for the Kraft Music Hall Christmas show that was aired on December 17, 1964 began at the Vatican November 7. By special permission of Pope Paul VI, Como and his crew were able to shoot segments in the Vatican gardens and other areas where cameras had never been permitted previously.[172][173] The show featured the first television appearance of the Sistine Chapel Choir, and also the first time a non-choir member (Como) sang with them.[173][174] The choir performed a Christmas hymn in Latin written by their director, Domenico Bartolucci, called "Christ Is Born", as part of their presentation. Como asked his associate, Ray Charles [of "Ray Charles Singers" fame] to write English lyrics for the song, using it many times on both television shows and his Christmas albums.[173][175] The Carpenters also recorded the song on their first Christmas album, Christmas Portrait.[173]

 

It was the only track on The Carpenters Christmas album (today nearing “double platinum” sales of 1.98 million) that I knew nothing about. Last year, May of 2020, someone uploaded to YouTube this 'remastered' version from The Carpenters Christmas special.

 

 

Edited December 6, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

DOYLE DYKES -- Jolly Old St. Nicholas (Random Late Night Pickin')

Late in life, 'Mr. Guitar' Chet Atkins was asked if there was someone he would pay to go and see in concert: "Oh," said Chet without missing a beat, "someone like Doyle Dykes." Chet would have loved this rendition of Jolly Old St. Nicholas -- best solo finger-picking rendition I could even imagine! Thanks for sharing, Doyle.

 

 

[Mark Blackburn]

SINATRA - Night

About once a year, Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio plays a song from a most unusual Sinatra album – a spoken tribute to poet Rod McKuen.  And tonight's the night -- for “NIGHT.”

“I can just about get through the day …. but the night makes me nervous,” says a middle-age Sinatra – his voice recorded close to the mic, so that the warmth of the sound, and the soft timbre of that impressive speaking voice, caresses our ears.  

And a memorable tune, (still in search of its own lyric) beautifully orchestrated, with lush strings and woodwinds: From Frank's favorite late-in-life arranger Don Costa, who died young, a few years after this recording: A unique Sinatra album celebrating an American poet with French sensibilities. ['The Voice' continues:]

“.... Nervous, not for any reason, except …. maybe that it catches you, unaware.  And follows you.  The way a woman follows .... when she wants something!”

After a 40 second musical bridge Sinatra returns to tell us,

“I've been in every kind of night.  And I ….  I shouldn't be afraid of darkness. But for some reason …. the night makes me nervous.”

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT - Christmasland

Tony Bennett told a nightclub audience in Toronto in long ago 1968 that, “You Canadians should erect a statue to Robert Farnon.” Acknowledged as the most influential of all arrangers (according to all the other great ones) the Canadian-born Farnon arranged and conducted Tony's first Christmas album (recorded in both London and New York). Since the last time I checked, the album now has its own, informed Wikipedia entry (below).

On his Facebook page today (12/7/2021) Tony asks his fans for their favorite songs now that Spotify has added “My Favorite Things” to their list of preview songs to enjoy for free:

Tony included on the Snowfall album a 'new' seasonal song “Christmasland” composed by Robert Farnon's brothers Dennis and Brian. [The latter for a time was Nat Cole's musical director; Dennis Farnon conducted the orchestra for my favorite Chet Atkins album “In Hollywood.”] Their song, arranged by their brother, with “Bob's Band” of London symphony musicians. 

[Wikipedia notes:] Snowfall: The Tony Bennett Christmas Album is a 1968 studio album by Tony Bennett, his first Christmas album.[3] It was arranged and conducted by Robert Farnon.

Even though they had been friends since the early 1950s, Bennett and Farnon had not recorded together before, Bennett having such reverence for Farnon's work that he felt he "wasn't ready...(and) not developed enough as an artist to record with him".[4]

Farnon, who normally recorded in London, came to New York City for one of the two sessions that produced this album. Six tracks were recorded at Columbia's recording studios in New York City, and four in London.

In Bennett's autobiography, he recalls that the New York session was attended by such notable American arrangers as Don Costa, Marion Evans and Torrie Zito, all curious to see how Farnon worked. Quincy Jones subsequently threw a party for Farnon in New York City, and at the party there were so many famous musicians that Jones joked, "If a bomb goes off in this apartment, there won't be any more records made!"[5]

The album was reissued on CD in 1994, with new cover art and a bonus track, "I'll Be Home for Christmas", recorded during a live appearance by Bennett on The Jon Stewart Show. It was reissued once more in 2007, again with different cover art and including a bonus DVD containing excerpts from Bennett's 1992 television special Tony Bennett: A Family Christmas.

Bennett later recorded two additional Christmas albums, Hallmark presents Christmas with Tony Bennett and the London Symphony Orchestra (2002) and A Swingin' Christmas (Featuring The Count Basie Big Band) (2008).

 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

JOHN PIZZARELLI  -  Paper Moon

Nearing midnight and just left John a note on his Facebook page:

“Channel 70” (Siriusly Sinatra) satellite radio is playing “John Pizzarelli Trio – It's Only a Paper Moon"  (at 11:11 Frozen Prairie Time). Their programmer extraordinaire, 'Jersey Lou' Simon's way of saying, perhaps: “Make that one my request John and Jessica when you return in a couple of weeks with your Santa show.”

Just had to say -- always love the way you retained elements of Nat Cole's original, including that closing riff – that was played by …. who? Oscar Moore, I believe. Google for a YouTube video -- and this delightful under 5 minute feature (2010):

 

Edited December 9, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

DEBORAH COX – What a Difference a Day Made

I awoke today thinking of an old tune -- 'owned' by Dinah Washington – her signature song, “What a Difference a Day Makes.” With a great (easily-remembered) lyric:

 

. . . There's a rainbow before me, skies above can't be stormy,

since that moment of bliss, that thrilling kiss

It's heaven when you, find romance on the menu,

What a difference a day makes – and the difference is you!

 

A very old melody Wiki reminds us, with an “original lyric in Spanish.”

 

"What a Diff'rence a Day Made", also recorded as "What a Difference a Day Makes", is a popular song originally written in Spanish by María Grever, a Mexican songwriter, in 1934 with the title "Cuando vuelva a tu lado" ("When I Return to Your Side") and first recorded by Orquesta Pedro Vía that same year ….

“The English lyric was written by Stanley Adams and published in late 1934. The most successful early recording that same year, was by the Dorsey Brothers ….”

 

Wikipedia lists a third variation on the title (with exclamation point) in its entry for Dinah's famous version title track on her 1959 album:

What a Diff'rence a Day Makes!  is a tenth studio album by Dinah Washington, arranged by Belford Hendricks, featuring her hit single of the same name.[3]

The title track won Washington the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance at the 2nd Annual Grammy Awards held in November 1959.

Album was released on CD in 2000 on the Verve label with 3 bonus tracks.

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Hit the 'back one hour' button for Siriusly Sinatra streaming in computer and …. Lo and behold! My favorite latter-day rendition – from a should-have-been-Grammy-nominated album by Canadian singer Deborah Cox. A lush and lovely orchestration, from one of my favorite arrangers, Rob Mounsey. [note below] I see my namesake has already reviewed this – twice! Old and forgetful.

Destination Moon is the fourth album by Canadian R&B singer Deborah Cox. It was released by Decca Records on June 4, 2007 in the United States. A tribute album to jazz singer Dinah Washington, Cox noted it "a concept album that I've had in mind for years".[2] Many of Washington's songs are reinterpreted on the album including the title track "Destination Moon". Most of the album was recorded live with a forty-piece orchestra and was produced and arranged by Rob Mounsey. The week after its release, Destination Moon peaked at number three on the Billboard Top Jazz Albums.

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

Sergio Mendes / Brasil '66 – Pretty World

 

“Hold me in your arms, and our little place, will be the 'Place of Places'

Nothing else to make . . . but breakfast and love.”

 

I always loved entertainers who could replicate their studio recordings in live shows on stage or TV.  A favorite example: “Sergio Mendes and 'Brasil '66” -- whose “Pretty World” is playing right this minute on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio.

A brilliant, unforgettable tune by Sergio set to a deceptively carefree (and perfect) lyric – words that could only have been crafted by 'The Bergmans' – Marilyn and Alan. They wrote 'Nice 'n' Easy' for Sinatra before they were married. Born in the same New York hospital, they're both still with us.

This live color TV performance from 1969 (nearing 3 million “views”) was posted to YouTube two years ago with a comment about singer Lani Hall. “Mrs. Herb Alpert” (stage left) turned 76 last month. Happily married to Herb since 1973, they still perform together, and were scheduled to appear here in Winnipeg Canada, till Covid intervened. [Lani's Wiki note below]

 

Lani Hall (born November 6, 1945) is an American singer, lyricist, author, and the wife of Herb Alpert. From 1966 to 1971 she performed as lead vocalist for Sérgio Mendes & Brasil '66. In 1972 Hall released her first solo album, Sun Down Lady. She may be best known, however, for providing the most-recognizable (female) face and (female) vocal signature sound to Sérgio's group during her tenure there, and for her rendition of the theme song to the 1983 James Bond film, Never Say Never Again, with its accompanying video, in which she prominently appears. In 1986 she was awarded her first Grammy for Es Fácil Amar, as "Best Latin Pop Performance."[1]

After that year, Hall largely retired, resurfacing in 1998 with the solo album Brasil Nativo. She has recorded more than 22 albums in three different languages and has released three albums on which she performs alongside her husband, Herb Alpert: Anything Goes, I Feel You and Steppin' Out. Hall received her second Grammy Award in 2013 as the producer for the album Steppin' Out.

 

Edited December 10, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

FRANK SINATRA – Prisoner of Love

A timeless “guy song” from nine decades ago – recorded by a wide range of important artists, from James Brown to Perry Como. Como had a hit with it in 1946; James Brown in 1963 – one year after Sinatra finally recorded it for his landmark “Sinatra & Strings” album – his first with arranger Don Costa.

Playing right now on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio (channel 70) -- a track I singled out in an Amazon review for a favorite (2-CD) compilation “Seduction: Sinatra Sings of Love.” [below]. Most viewed (with “comments left on”) at YouTube this day, with an informed note and a pleasing slide show!

 

 

“A salute to producer Charles Pignone for making "Prisoner of Love" track Number 1. Sinatra's seductive ways with the Ladies were legendary. Here, however he goes straight to the hearts of all males `consensually enslaved' by beauty. (Hard to believe such words were first sung in prim & proper 1931!)

"For one command I stand and wait now
From One who's master of my fate now . . .
She's in my dreams, awake or sleeping
Upon my knees to her I'm creeping,
My very life is in her keeping . . .
I'm just a prisoner of love."

The ache in Frank's voice! Seems he's `been there, done that.' And listen closely, if you will, to the perfectly-mated arrangement by Don Costa (from their 1961 "Sinatra & Strings" album - one of the first Sinatra CDs you should purchase).

Concerning which obsession, the writer of the pleasurable liner notes, author Bill Zehme, wrote:

"He had a weakness for poise: Elusive Women vexed him . . . drew him in, with their flight, and their casual indifference. Once, at a party at Humphrey Bogart's house, he complained to Lauren Bacall "after following one such specimen around without success: `She's ignoring me!'

To which the rueful Bacall said, `Yeah, she's ignoring you right into the sack.' (Her prophesy was realized!)."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVs0bElQelw

 

 

 

Edited December 10, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

DOYLE DYKES -- Jingle Bells

You don't have to play guitar, to realize that THIS is the best finger-style rendition of JINGLE BELLS that you may ever hear. And guaranteed to make you smile (or 'double your money back' as they used to say). My favorite living guitar virtuoso plays, without repeating himself, so many melodic variations of increasingly-difficult complexity – and yet, as the great ones always do, he makes it look almost easy. Almost. Thanks for sharing, including the back-story that,

 

“I was in Athens Georgia and we were about to finish mixing my Christmas album a few years ago . . . and I'd been listening to some things we'd done – some demos – and I thought, 'This is just way too chill – it needs something, you know, FUN and UP and so I thought, Well, I'll do Jingle Bells. And I grabbed my guitar and came up with that arrangement of Jingle Bells – a 'thanksgiving' song, I hope you enjoy!"

 

https://www.facebook.com/doyledykes/videos/796450774543903

 

 

[Mark Blackburn]

DOYLE DYKES – What Child Is This

My finger-style guitar hero Doyle Dykes occasionally picks up a 12 string – usually to employ for a particular purpose that unique sound: Like a harpsichord, the sound of a 12-string guitar can quickly become tiresome (in the hands of a less gifted player). As if knowing that I'd just been re-reading the Wikipedia entry for “What Child is This” – the song's 19^th century English lyricist – his words in 1871 to a much older tune Greensleeves (composer unknown).

Recorded just hours ago (12/10/2021) – on a 12-string electric, created for him by GODIN, a Quebec-based company that has become the world's largest manufacturer of quality guitars, including signature models for Mr. Dykes. His solo performance here, you may agree, is breathtakingly beautiful: The shading, and his tasteful insertion of just a few modern chords; the seeming absence of mistakes in the most difficult-to-play passages which he makes look easy!

 

 

Wikipedia note:

"What Child Is This?" is a Christmas carol with lyrics written by William Chatterton Dix in 1865, subsequently set to the tune of "Greensleeves", a traditional English folk song in 1871. Although written in Great Britain, the carol today is more popular in the United States than its country of origin . . .

 

 

Edited December 11, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

BARBARA COOK – Cookin' Breakfast for the One I Love

At Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio, I like to think that they know my love for Barbara Cook, and program accordingly. As if to say, 'Bet you never heard this one before,' Channel 70 is playing her version of (When I'm) Cookin' Breakfast, For The One I Love. On this recording Barbara shared Tony Bennett's longtime musical director, pianist/accompanist/arranger  Lee Musiker. The graphic streaming on my computer is from her late-in-life album, “Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder.”

Too obscure for a Wikipedia entry of its own, the website “Second Hand Songs” has a one-line entry:

“The song Cooking Breakfast for the One I Love was written by Billy Rose and Henry Tobias and was first released by Fanny [Funny Girl] Brice in 1930.”

Another favorite singer (who died young, decades ago) Maria (Midnight at the Oasis) Muldaur recorded this one. Her version is also at YouTube.

Love the lyrical allusion to an old saying, (the endearing half-truth) that, 'The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.'

“Our life has been so nice-and-chummy, right from the start:

When I'd won his tummy – I'd won his heart.”

 

 

 

 

[Mark Blackburn]

ELLA – Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

“Ella and the London Symphony Orchestra” says the scroll on my computer, streaming Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio: My ears perk up each time I hear something from this album. Playing right now is this sonic marvel, created four years ago from old, destined-to-be-forgotten tapes of Ella Fitzgerald alone in a studio – with just a piano trio or solo pianist – posthumously surrounded on a perfect 21st century sound stage (Abbey Road Studios) by London's finest living 'philharmonic' musicians.

Playing now is one of my favorite Rodgers & Hart songs (which Frank thought to include on my favorite of his albums, 'The Concert Sinatra' - 1963).  But as a 'girl song' sung by Ella in her prime, this latter-day hybrid recording is suddenly 'definitive' to my ears. Yours too?

No Wikipedia entry (yet) for this 2017 album but an English website, “U-DiscoverMusic” informs us these recordings originated in “the prolific period in Ella’s career, from 1950 to 1961, during her historic relationship with Decca Records and later Verve (founded by her manager Norman Granz).

“These early recordings were very sparse, with often only Ellis Larkins on piano, or a small band that included Ella’s husband Ray Brown on bass. As a result, the minimal instrumental immediately opened up lots of possibilities for adding an orchestra”.

The album's co-producer James Morgan spoke of the delicate balance of the project, saying: “For tracks where we didn’t need to extract the vocal, we were forever giving thanks for the incredible quality of the original recordings – the vocal right up front, rich and warm. We constantly marveled at how amazing, faultless and natural her vocal sounded without all the so-called expertise we use to record in this day and age.” The article notes that these “newly orchestrated and arranged performances feature Oscar and Grammy Award winning arranger Jorge Calandrelli, as well as James Morgan who both served as conductors for these symphony sessions that were recorded at Abbey Road Studios.”

 

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Almost 30 years after her death (the summer of 1996, age 79) we're still on a first name basis with “Ella” (no need to mention her Irish surname). Her Wikipedia entry is perhaps the most comprehensive for any “jazz singer” – not surprising for someone once known as “The First Lady of Song,” and “The Queen of Jazz.” Wiki highlights include the note that, “She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, intonation, and a 'horn-like' improvisational ability, particularly in her  scat singing. [And that] In 1993, after a career of nearly 60 years, she gave her last public performance. Her accolades included fourteen Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

 

[Ella's Wiki entry now includes an informed note from a Sinatra fan, that wasn't there before:]

 

Possibly Fitzgerald's greatest unrealized collaboration (in terms of popular music) was a studio or live album with Frank Sinatra. The two appeared on the same stage only periodically over the years, in television specials in 1958 and 1959, and again on 1967's A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim, a show that also featured Antônio Carlos Jobim.

 

Pianist Paul Smith has said, "Ella loved working with [Frank]. Sinatra gave her his dressing-room on A Man and His Music and couldn't do enough for her." When asked, Norman Granz would cite "complex contractual reasons" for the fact that the two artists never recorded together.

 

Fitzgerald's appearance with Sinatra and Count Basie in June 1974 for a series of concerts at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, was seen as an important incentive for Sinatra to return from his self-imposed retirement of the early 1970s. The shows were a great success, and September 1975 saw them gross $1,000,000 in two weeks on Broadway, in a triumvirate with the Count Basie Orchestra."

 

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As for this recording, I believe Ella would have loved this orchestration -- by Tony Bennett's favorite latter-day arranger, Jorge Calandrelli (they've won multiple GRAMMYs for their 12 album collaborations).

 

Really, isn't this marvelous? 

 

[Mark Blackburn]

SINATRA - I Thought About You

 

 

His immediate response to a two-page letter celebrating my 'late-in-life discovery of your greatness.'  [My closing thought:]

"On a personal note: my absolute favorite song of yours, for reasons I can't really explain, is 'I Thought About You.' Maybe it's the deceptively simple, elegant tune by that genius who began life as Chester Babcock (Van Heusen). Or the brilliant lyric by the century's greatest lyricist (Mercer). Or the gem of an arrangement by my favorite American arranger (Riddle) with all those train sounds, that have you swinging down the track. Oh hell, let's face it---it's the singer! The song wouldn't be what it is without you. Merry Christmas 1992!"

[Playing right this minute on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio:]

 

Edited December 12, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

WALTER RODRIGUES JR. – I'll Be Home For Christmas

[Just left Brazilian-born American guitarist Walter Rodrigues Jr. a note]

If my hero, your compatriot, Sergio Mendes and 'Brasil 66' had recorded this one, it would be just about as beautiful as this. Almost. But this is here and now, in the present moment (12/14/2021) and 'right now' is always better.

Shhh . . . don't tell my other finger-style guitar heroes – Tommy Emmanuel and Doyle Dykes (whose first visits to Winnipeg I helped arrange) – but new arrangements by Walter Rodrigues of old favorites are always 'the best I ever heard.' Case in point. Goosebump inducing, as I like to tell musical friends. Have a blessed Christmas and thanks for sharing, Walter.

 

 

 

[Walter left us fans a comment "10 hours ago":]

"Hi everyone! Went overboard on this one with 26 audio tracks and several hours of video editing 🙂 Hope you'll enjoy my arrangement of this beautiful Christmas classic. Wishing you a happy and safe Holidays! As always, thank you for watching!"

WARNING: Headphones required!!!

P.S. Did you catch that 'Wave'? around the 3:30 mark -- on the little coda at the end, played on 'celeste' chimes -- Walter's allusion to my favorite song by Jobim, WAVE -- the opening notes to the words, "So close your eyes, for that's a lovely way to be, aware of things your heart alone was meant to see, the fundamental loneliness goes, whenever two can dream-a-dream together!" On the definitive version, arranged by Brazil's Eumir Deodato, the 'The Voice' hits his lowest note ever (an E-flat). This one (with most views this day at YouTube):

 

 

 

 

Edited December 14, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

ALAN BROADBENT & LONDON METROPOLITAN STRINGS – Strange Meadowlark

Concerning two of my favorite living arrangers -- Nan Schwartz and Alan Broadbent:

Nan, a California girl, picked up a Grammy for her glorious arrangement on Natalie Cole's retire-the-trophy recording of HERE'S THAT RAINY DAY.  Alan is the New Zealand -born, Grammy-winning, jazz pianist /composer /arranger (who conducted our Winnipeg Symphony orchestra when Diana Krall last appeared at our Winnipeg Jets hockey arena). Nan just shared with Facebook friends, a note of appreciation for Alan's latest creation – philharmonic strings arrangement of Dave Brubeck's lesser-known STRANGE MEADOWLARK.

All my life, for sixty years now, I've periodically hummed to myself this most beautiful tune from Brubeck's multi-platinum -selling “Time Out” album – where it was track 2, sandwiched between the album's two hits (with their own Wiki entries) 'Blue Rondo a la Turk' and 'Take Five' – the first million-selling single by a jazz artist. [Wiki note below]

Imagine my joy to find this link, provided by Nan Schwartz, to 'Strange Meadowlark' - "The new Album 'Broadbent plays Brubeck' by Grammy-winner Alan Broadbent and London Metropolitan Strings" -- now available "on all relevant streaming platforms! Listen now to the full Album on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music and many more ... "

 

[“Time Out” – background by Wikipedia:]

The album was intended as an experiment using musical styles Brubeck discovered abroad while on a United States Department of State sponsored tour of Eurasia, such as when he observed in Turkey a group of street musicians performing a traditional Turkish folk song that was played in 9
8 time with subdivisions of 2+2+2+3, a rare meter for Western music.[12]

On the condition that Brubeck's group first record a conventional album of traditional songs of the American South, Gone with the Wind,[13] Columbia president Goddard Lieberson took a chance to underwrite and release Time Out. It received negative reviews by critics upon its release.[14] It produced a Top 40 hit single in "Take Five", composed by Paul Desmond, and the one track not written by Dave Brubeck.

Track Listing

All pieces composed by Dave Brubeck, except "Take Five" by Paul Desmond.[19]

Side one

1. "Blue Rondo à la Turk" – 6:44

2. "Strange Meadow Lark" – 7:22

3. "Take Five" – 5:24

 

"Strange Meadow Lark" begins with a piano solo that exhibits no clear time signature, but then settles into a fairly ordinary 4/4 swing once the rest of the group joins. "Take Five" is in 5/4 throughout. According to Paul Desmond, "It was never supposed to be a hit. It was supposed to be a Joe Morello drum solo."[14]

 

Edited December 14, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT – What Child is This

As I like to tell the grand kids (I have eight of them) -- “This is the best time in human history to be alive.” Not least for instant answers to questions. (The novelty will never wear off.) This is Tony Bennett's 95th Christmas and I was just trying to recall “which album of Tony's featured WHAT CHILD IS THIS?" [Google those words and instantly we get this:]

 

"Tony Bennett released The Classic Christmas Album in 2011, with songs from his other Christmas albums, ranging from Snowfall to A Swingin' Christmas. Today's song, “What Child Is This?” was the only previously unreleased song on the album. (Dec 23, 2015)"

 

Still left wondering about the exact 'where and when' of this recording – Is this London Symphony/ Philharmonic musicians? Where's a Wise Man (or Woman) when you need one!

 

Tony Bennett released an “official version” with (8,259 views since December 2, 2019) with “comments left on.” The best sound quality, of course.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UivC_iwT6Ow

 

 

But then there is this: A seldom-seen upload (600 views) – posted by someone with 95 thousand “subscribers” – NANCYFLORESSANTOS – with the first stanza of lyric included, with quite the most beautiful slide show, featuring some of the greatest nativity paintings – including favorites I was hoping to see again 'all in one place' on this, my own 74th Christmas. Especially love the ones with 'farm animals' – which, when you think of it, provided the first strong odors to hit those little nostrils when he took his first breath. Always a humbling thought!

 

 

[Mark Blackburn]

ROSEMARY CLOONEY – The Spirit of Christmas

The graphic at Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio, streaming on the computer says: “LET IT SNOW – Christmas with Rosemary Clooney – The Original Recordings.” A Christmas song by a great singer that I never heard before! (Not many of those left.)

I can't find even a trace of its history online. Sure enough though, YouTube has one version (with six 'thumbs up') an official share by “Rosemary Clooney Topic” posted on a July day in 2018.  “Comments turned off” (so we won't “learn more,” will we?)

A 'Countrified' arrangement that opens with a little campfire harmonica, but nicely orchestrated, with an old-fashioned vocal chorus (a good one). If I'd written these words, I'd sure want people to know my name, wouldn't you?

The sweet, happy laughter of children at play

The clear, far-off jingle of bells on a sleigh

The Love of the Man who was born on this day

That's the spirit of Christmas!

 

 

Edited December 15, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

FRANK – “down Mexico way . . . “

“This is Johnny Mathis – playing favorites – on Siriusly Sinatra,” says the singer who was by far the best-selling recording artist (most multi-platinum albums) of the 1950's. After playing “Wonderful! Wonderful!” (his first million-seller with “The Ray Conniff Orchestra”) Johnny Mathis tells us, with a laugh:

 

“I LOVE Mexico! And I love Frank Sinatra's recording of 'South of the Border' – just so wonderful! When he loved a song, he really gave it everything he had. It's a joy, to hear someone as gifted as he is, singing a song that he liked!"

 

Track 14 on the Billy May -arranged “Come Fly With Me” album, most viewed version at YouTube, with informed recent comments like these:

 

Rishard Lampese

1 year ago

Just astonishing phrasing reflecting such a deep understanding of the music. This, along with a golden voice, made the man unsurpassed in this genre!

 

Joesph Begley

2 weeks ago

Song written by Jimmy Kennedy from Omagh in Northern Ireland. He also wrote Red Sails in the Sunset while watching a yacht leaving the harbour in Portstewart in Northern Ireland.

 

Brendon Mills

8 months ago (edited)

This was the first mp3 I downloaded. June 2001. Audiogalaxy. Napster had been killed by then.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT – Christmas In Herald Square

“The Sinatra Christmas special was produced by Charles Pignone” says the voice of Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio for an hour-long show that just ended. All this day it seems (12/20/2021) Channel 70 Sirius/XM has been playing one Sinatra concert after another, plus special programming that features Frank (cleverly edited) doing all the spoken introductions.

After a flurry of Sinatra songs this hour, we heard Frank's voice saying, of his good friend Tony Bennett: “When I said this guy is 'the best in the business' – I meant it!! And the best Italian singer [too].” What follows, are five consecutive Christmas songs by Tony -- starting with jazz piano trio, 'live' performances of 'Jingle Bells' and 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' and the beloved Charlie Brown special's “Christmas Time is Here.” (From Tony's most recent Christmas album with The 'Count Basie' big band.)

At this moment, it's Tony singing a poignant seasonal song I'd almost forgotten -- (When It's) “Christmas In Herald Square.” Sure enough, the latest official video (this one) posted by Tony “1 year ago.” Leave it to Mr. Bennett to rescue a seasonal gem like this one. Knowing it deserves to be heard.

 

Edited December 21, 2021 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

IDINA MENZEL – What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

George Benson's duet partner on his recent Nat King Cole tribute album was one “Idina Menzel.” She's been getting regular airplay lately and at this moment Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio (now channel 70) is playing my new favorite version of WHAT ARE YOU DOING NEW YEARS EVE – the other 'seasonal song' composed (words and tune) by Frank (Guys & Dolls) Loesser. He would have LOVED to hear Idina's recapitulation of this great song by the man who won an Academy Award for “Baby, It's Cold Outside.” Love the trumpet solo on the musical bridge and the coda at song's end.

Most viewed version at YouTube – with “comments left on.” Don't you love it when they do that?

 

[Comment below the video that speaks for many of us kindred spirits!]

Eric Twele

7 years ago

Now this version is the only one that should be played every New Year's Eve.

 

[Wikipedia says:]

Idina Kim Menzel is an American actress and singer. Menzel is one of the most successful Broadway performers of her generation. She is well known for her portrayals of strong, female characters who are often misunderstood. Wikipedia

Born: May 30, 1971 (age 50 years), New York, New York, United States

Height: 1.68 m

Albums:  Idina, Holiday Wishes, Christmas: A Season of Love, MORE

Spouse:  Aaron Lohr (m. 2017), Taye Diggs (m. 2003–2014)

Children:  Walker Nathaniel Diggs

 

 

[Mark Blackburn]

WALTER RODRIGUES JR. -- Winter Wonderland

Shared this day (12/23/2021) by my favorite living finger-style virtuoso. [He's playing an 'Ovation' -- Glen Campbell's weapon-of-choice.] Just left a reply:

 

"The walking bass line throughout, in support of chord sequences -- substitutions of incredible difficulty to play -- especially at speed (without a lot of string 'squeaks' let alone mistakes). Who but Walter can do this? Yet make it look so easy! Oh-so-beautiful too. To coin a song title, Who could ask for anything more?

 

 

After Walter responded with a "Thanks, Mark! [It is an] "Ovation 1763" I added that,

"Around the 0:30 second mark you imparted (to my ears) a hint of reverberation -- the perfect amount -- to accent the hauntingly beautiful chord sequence at that moment -- at the start of the bridge ("In the Winter we can build a snowman"). It's only there for six seconds -- till the 0:39 mark. A perfect 'accent.' Was it intended? Or angelic intervention. 'Tis the season for that!"

 

 

 

 

Edited December 23, 2021 by Mark Blackburn