GREAT MELODY, GREAT LYRIC, GREAT RENDITION

[Mark Blackburn]

DOYLE DYKES – Someday (You'll Want Me to Want You) – “Django and Autry on a '37 Gibson”

Late in life 'Mr. Guitar' Chet Atkins was asked if there were players he would pay money to see in concert. Without thinking twice, Chet said “Oh …. someone like Doyle Dykes.” One of the reasons Mr. Atkins felt that way (I'm sure) is Doyle's remarkable versatility – on full display tonight for his latest “Random Late Night Pickin'” nine minute segment shared at YouTube.

Doyle employs a borrowed 1937 Gibson (“black, with tiger-stripe, tortoise shell pick-guard”) to channel the spirit of Django Reinhardt on "Nuages" (Clouds).  Before singing and playing Gene Autry – recalling The Singing Cowboy's 1946 recording of Someday You'll Want Me to Want You' (Wiki note below.)

Permit an aside: Chet Atkins told me, in an interview for an Ottawa radio station in 1971, that Django's signature was the only autograph he ever sought – circa 1952 when the Belgian Gypsy jazz giant visited New York City the year before his untimely death.

Stay tuned for an anecdote about one of Doyle's biggest fans in France, Pierre Matisse, grandson of the great French impressionist painter Henri Matisse. Pierre, a distinguished painter in his own right was a big fan of Doyle Dykes gifting him with the cover painting, titled White Rose For Heidi for Doyle's 2018 album 'Treasures of the Spirit.'

 

Before his death at age 90, Pierre Matisse recalled to Doyle visiting a jazz club in Paris with his distinguished grandfather who said, of the featured musician – “It's Django. Would you like to meet him?” The standing-room-only crowd “parted like the Red Sea” as the great artist brought his grandson to meet the jazz giant.

Which is to say, thanks for sharing, Mr. Dykes.

Wikipedia note

"Someday You'll Want Me to Want You" is a popular song published in 1944 by Jimmie Hodges.[2] The song became a standard, recorded by many pop and country music singers.

In April 1951, Hugh O. Starr, an inventor from Steubenville, Ohio, filed an action in United States District Court, Southern District of New York, against Jimmie Hodges and publisher Duchess Music Corporation. Starr alleged that he wrote the words and music to 'Someday' in 1944, after which the defendants "appropriated, copyrighted, published and sold" his work. He was awarded $15,000 in a settlement.[5]

Gene Autry had one of the first recordings (1946) but Vaughn Monroe's 1949 recording was the No. 1 hit version. The recording by Vaughn Monroe was released by RCA Victor Records and charted on July 29, 1949, and lasted eighteen weeks on the chart, spending two weeks at number 1.

Edited January 6, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TOMMY EMMANUEL – Game Show Rag / Cannonball Rag

Back when my youngest son Ben (a good guitarist) was living in Toronto, he phoned to say he'd just seen “in Toronto's largest music store, where I bought my Fender Strat” the “best guitarist I have ever seen.” It was Doyle Dykes. I responded with thanks for the heads-up and said, “Another finger-style giant Australia's Tommy Emmanuel (now an American citizen based in Nashville) has an upcoming appearance at Toronto's Ryerson College auditorium. I'll pay for your ticket, Son.”

A decade later I helped arrange visits to Winnipeg by both Doyle and Tommy. After pestering Mr. Emmanuel for years to “include the world's coldest major city on your (300 dates per year) tour” – he did so. My guitarist grandson Thomas and I were among a dozen fans at the meet & greet before he walked out on stage. At the end of his show  Tommy told an audience of about 600 that “we liked this so much we've already arranged to come back to Winnipeg, same time next year.”

Far and away the greatest 'showman' in the history of the instrument, Mr. Emmanel is equally at home in a huge concert setting or – in the case of this video just sent my way by YouTube – warming old hearts in a retirement home setting – an apparent favor to a lady friend who introduces him (wonder Where or When?)

I've heard Tommy 'live' on stage twice now. He must have made a single mistake, but I can't recall what it was.

Mr. Emmanuel also writes the finest guitar instrumentals since Jerry Reed. This one he titled “Game Show Rag” – and uses it to segue into the Country classic CANNONBALL RAG. Needless to say, no one ever performed it better!

I defy you not to love Tommy Emmanuel and his Australian-made MATON signature instrument. I asked him why he didn't play a Gibson (occasionally). “Because this is …. better,” he said. If you can spare seven minutes I promise you won't be disappointed or double your money back.

 

 

Edited January 15, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

SINATRA -- I'll Only Miss Her When I Think of Her

 

Our eldest Aaron was born on this day 45 years ago in Bermuda.  "Do you miss living in Bermuda?" a dear Facebook friend asked a moment ago.  [My reply:]  

 

"To paraphrase a favorite lyric from my favorite romantic / humorous lyricist Sammy Cahn:  I only miss it when I think of it  [pause for effect] and I think of it .... all the time."

 

Best version of this seldom-heard ballad, one of the best from Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, was recorded with a guitar hero of mine -- arguably Brazil's greatest-ever Laurindo Almeida.  Google to be reminded that is from the mid-sixties, the first offering with the cover of Sinatra's album "My Kind of Broadway."  But never out-of-date, right?

 

 

Indulge me please.  

Our Aaron turns 45 today (1/7/2023). My Irene was just recalling the day of his birth in Bermuda, 1978 – and “the pain – the worst I'd ever felt” says his Mom “as we walked out the door" for the drive to hospital. That would be “King Edward VII Memorial” hospital – where Irene recalls “Dr. Simmons chased you out of the operating room saying – 'Get that camera out of here!'.” It was my new Nikon. It was the 70s. You had to be there.

We recalled our taking Aaron when he wasn't yet two years old to the Bermuda airport where he could identify all the planes from now defunct carriers. I'd point to a jetliner that just arrived from Baltimore and ask: What's that one? People nearby were amazed to hear a little voice say with perfect enunciation that it was a “Lockheed 1011 Tristar Whisper-liner.”

 

 

 

 

Edited January 7, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

DOYLE DYKES – Bye Bye Blues

“Son, I don't know what guitar you usually play,” said Les Paul to Doyle Dykes, “but you sound great on that one!”

This after being invited to play on stage with him after acquiring the same day in 2000 his first Les Paul Gibson – which Les inscribed on the shiny black top.

Far and away the best rendition of BYE BYE BLUES since the early 50s original – but better. Why? Doyle is channeling Chet Atkins, simultaneously with Les Paul licks – plus something all his own. Glorious arpeggios that are pure Doyle Dykes. Disarmingly at song's end, Doyle tells us he wasn't planning to play that – hadn't practiced it beforehand. [Starting around the 1:10 mark]

Love the opening anecdote about going to a guitar store planning to buy a pick guard and spotting this guitar, phoning his wife “not for permission” but for her “approval” and her response. “Well, you don't own a Les Paul.” Go for it, Doyle. We're so glad you did!

 

[ Around the 7:18 mark - HERE'S THAT RAINY DAY ]

DOYLE DYKES – Here's That Rainy Day

I've given away to loved ones all my guitars and on the only one I have left, there is a single autograph inscribed on my nylon-string Godin (La Patrie) the signature of “Doyle Dykes 2018” – signed with a fine point Sharpie pen following his three-hour performance at a Winnipeg music store -- the one which features Doyle's Quebec-made signature model Godin acoustic/electrics.

I remember one of the Godin executives, who arranged Doyle's visit, was standing at a mic introducing him and while Doyle adjusted the volume on his instrument he quietly played a few bars of “Here's That Rainy Day.” The moment I realized Doyle's versatility. It's a jazz standard – my favorite composed by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen in 1952. (They also wrote “But Beautiful” the year of my birth, 1947.)

I spoke with Doyle, before and after a performance that must have included a mistake (but I didn't spot it). There were about 50 of us, mostly guitarists, including my son Ben and 8-year-old grandson Luke. Doyle took a moment to sit down and speak to Luke who was in awe of “Mr. Dykes.”

Before the show I had introduced myself saying, “Your father and mine died the same year, and something tells me your Dad, like mine, loved 'The Poor People of Paris.'

Three hours later at show's end, Doyle held my own Gibson Northern (Southern) Jumbo. I pointed out it was hand-built by Ren Ferguson (who constructed Doyle's magnificent signature model Guild). Looking me in the eye, he played a few bars of The Poor People of Paris. When I returned it to its case, I saw he had inserted between the strings the black thumb pick he'd used all evening.

Anyway, imagine my delight to hear Doyle's uniquely beautiful approach to HERE'S THAT RAINY DAY. And again, at song's end Doyle admits surprise at what he's just done:

“I hadn't planned to play that. And I haven't done that in a long time! You know, I was going to play something totally different on this program ….”

So glad you were 'guided' in this direction Mr. Dykes.
 

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

DOYLE DYKES -- The Road to Napali

 Okay, one more highlight and the reason THIS is my favorite Doyle Dykes program (at least since the one a few months ago, with his talented piano-playing brother). At around the 13:53 mark Doyle introduces a most beautiful melody he calls “The Road to Napali” (Kauai, Hawaii).

It's been called 'The Grand Canyon in the Pacific' – on the northern-most populated Hawaiian island of KAUAI – the highest point of land on the west coast of many people's favorite island – the one with “maybe the most amazing sunsets on planet earth.”

Doyle's son Caleb lives and works there, and it resulted in this beautiful melody – a song about being on the road to the “Napali coast and the Waimea Canyon State Park.”

[ Around the 13:53 mark ]

 

 

[Mark Blackburn]

NAT KING COLE – Here's That Rainy Day

He failed to make Rolling Stone's recent list of the “200 Best Singers of All Time” – which says more about the list than about Nat King Cole – a singer my mother loved above all others. Listening just now to Diane Schuur's “Playing Favorites” show on Siriusly Sinatra where Diane included her own jazzy rendition of Here's That Rainy Day. And I wondered whether Nat had ever recorded this, my favorite Johnny Burke / Jimmy Van Heusen love song. If he had I think I would have remembered it. (I have all his albums on CD.) But Google anyway ....

Lo and behold, this 'live' English TV version – shared at YouTube “10 years ago” – a color broadcast on BBC from exactly 60 years ago! With an informed note from the one who posted this:

“I recall watching that old TV show back then, the couple times it aired. Always loved this version of, Here's that rainy day, by Nat but could never find it on any of his many albums – and I did search for it. I believe this 1963 TV show was the only time Nat did this song as it was done on this TV show.”

 

 

 

Edited January 10, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

Natalie Cole – Here's That Rainy Day

Nat's little girl grew up wishing her father had recorded Here's That Rainy Day – one of her lifelong favorites. She made up for it, with what I consider the definitive recording – for her final album of standards – a Grammy-winner for arranger Nan Schwartz (whose parents recorded with Sinatra).

First offering at YouTube this night has a 'review' posted “2 years ago” by my namesake:

Has it really been 12 years? September 2008 I posted an Amazon review for Natalie's "Still Unforgettable" CD that included this note to friends: Do me a favor, would you? When you get this CD, go straight for track 8 - "Here's That Rainy Day," one of the two best songs written by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen -- the other is "But Beautiful" - the track that follows this one. Just leave your CD running from there . . . for what may be the BEST sequence of several songs on the album -- though every one of these is brilliant, and each arrangement sparkles with subtle, delightful differences.

All my life I've been waiting to hear (what I would declare) the 'best-ever' version of Here's That Rainy Day. Up until now my favorite has always been Sinatra's reading -- to a magnificent Gordon Jenkins' arrangement. This one, dare I say, surpasses Frank's - filling my heart with joy!

Absolutely note-perfect in every way: Natalie's slow and gentle, almost rubato, out-of-tempo, take on "Rainy Day" breathes new life into every word of Johnny Burke's poignant, two-stanza masterpiece. And the arrangement [is] by Nan Schwartz . . . who gets my vote as "Best New Arranger" [2008]. Hope she helps Natalie win another Grammy! [And as it turned out, Nan did just that. ]

 

 

[Mark Blackburn]

JOHN PIZZARELLI – It's Only a Paper Moon

 

“I don't know whether you remember the 80s …. but they had these things called 'record stores'” – from John's opening monologue for a terrific 'live' performance of It's Only a Paper Moon. It's worth listening to the entire intro – culminating in John impersonating his father Bucky's go-to warning, whenever anyone went near his “dusty but trusty Garrard 4-speed turntable: WATCH THE NEEDLE!!!”

John Pizzarelli is performing with Jessica Molaskey tonight “and until January 16” on a luxury cruise ship somewhere off the coast of Florida (Fort Lauderdale). Whereas, this performance with trio was from the “Arizona Musicfest - 2 years ago.”

 

 

Edited January 10, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

SINATRA – “Rainy Day” – 'live' TV with small jazz combo 1959

 

The novelty will never wear off: the intuitive genius at YouTube sending my way newly-cherished videos I never knew existed before right this minute! As if to say “Bet you'll love this!” – in small screen black & white, it's a 44-year old Frank Sinatra and some of his favorite jazz musicians (a quintet?) with my 'new favorite' rendition of Here's That Rainy Day. How can you not love this?

[A note about the primitive technology that captured this:]

Before video tape (VTR) became 'ubiquitous' in TV stations everywhere, major events were captured, if at all, on “kinescope” – where a 16 mm film camera was hooked up to a high quality small screen monitor (professional grade – very expensive). This would have been one such rare event someone wise captured for posterity. Wonder who? And whether this was a network or 'local' station recording. Unanswerable questions since everyone who was 'present for the occasion' is gone with the wind. Bless their departed souls.

 

Edited January 10, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

SINATRA – Only the Lonely -- (the one by Sammy Cahn, not Roy Orbison)

Our youngest son Ben was born on this day (1/11/1980) in far-off Bermuda, where we spent the decade of the 70s. A moment ago over breakfast, Irene recalled the 'delivery' (her second 'C-section') and the nurse who said, “It's a boy.” Hours later, after Irene said to the nurse that “we still haven't decided on a name” she replied with apparent authority: “He is a Benjamin.” Ben for short.

After graduating with a science degree from our University of Manitoba, Ben surprised everyone by taking a break and moving to Japan – to teach English. One of his first students? Our beautiful and beloved Eriko who was herself a teacher, in Osaka (a city with a population nearly that of Canada). She stayed home to raise our wonderful grand kids Luke and Charlotte. And Eriko has just landed a teaching job here in Winnipeg.

2022 brought them back to Japan for the first time post-pandemic, with side-trips (both ways) to Hawaii, now their favorite place. Where's a picture of that happy family? 

 

Just reminded myself of our Ben's expressed appreciation (some 18 years ago) for one particular Sinatra song – which triggered an Amazon review for my favorite Sinatra album, “SINGS for ONLY THE LONELY. [5 stars and titled]

 Crying on the Inside

Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2005

I like to make friends laugh, but like the proverbial clown who is 'crying on the inside' (and as the singer is depicted here on the original album cover) I feel most in tune with life's poignant moments . . . the ones cynics like me usually dismiss as 'wallowing in self-pity.'

I've identified with Johnny Mercer's protagonist in "One For My Baby" since I first saw Frank Sinatra perform it on black and white TV, 45 years ago. But it's the Sammy Cahn classics on this album -- especially the title track --- that resonate, most deeply in my heart.

I close my eyes and listen in amazement to what many consider the single most beautiful ballad-recording Frank Sinatra and arranger Nelson Riddle ever created together --- Sammy Cahn & Jule Styne's "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry." I listen and see in my mind's eye the girl who broke my heart, in that 'very good year, when I was 21.'

Shortly after my youngest son (now teaching English in Japan and in love again) had his heart broken for the first time, he "discovered" his favorite Sinatra recording, among his dad's CDs -- "Only the Lonely."

Like his father, he prefers up-tempo Sinatra -- and singles out "I Thought About You" as his favorite 'swing' tune (mine too). But "Only the Lonely" he considers the "best song about lost love." (We agree on so few things!)

The same version of this song, on the 3-CD "Capitol Years" box set, opens with an additional 25 seconds of Sinatra giving expert instruction to Felix Slatkin -- who actually conducted the Riddle orchestra, that night of May 29, 1958.

The heartfelt liner notes, penned by Pete Welding, seem to speak to me personally. And the frustrated song writer within me, identifies with composer and lyricist as the two collaborators recalled, "attempting to write (this) song of loneliness for Frank Sinatra -- the challenge of matching words with notes."

"The melody came first," said Jimmy Van Heusen. "The lyric came very hard; session after session without the glimmer of a line. Sammy is as facile a man with words as there is in our business and I wanted to change the melody here and there to be helpful. He wouldn't permit me to change a note."

Said Sammy Cahn: "(It's) one of the best melodies Jimmy ever composed (and) I'm delighted now the melody is exactly as I first heard it."  Sinatra once singled out this album as his personal favorite, among those he recorded for Capitol. It is mine. Perhaps it'll be yours too?

 

 

[Mark Blackburn]

JEFF BECK / IMELDA MAY – How High the Moon

My favorite rock guitarist Jeff Beck has died. His Wiki entry was updated last night with a brief note:

Jeff Beck died from bacterial meningitis on 10 January 2023, at the age of 78

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I loved him for his versatility – never more than the year Les Paul died, when Jeff Beck and singer Imelda May 'channeled' Les Paul & Mary Ford at the 2010 Grammys: I never heard a better 'live' rendition of 'How High The Moon.'

Is it at YouTube? Alas no. At least not the Grammy performance (which was promptly removed from YouTube for 'Grammy copyright' reasons).

But Jeff and Imelda reprised their performance – most famously at the Iridium jazz club in New York where Les Paul held court once a week, right up until his passing at age 95 in 2009.

It became the heart of a “Rock and Roll Party Les Paul Tribute" album. Wiki entry (below).

From the hour-and-a-half DVD – “an 8-camera shoot at the Iridium.”

 

 

 

Wikipedia

Rock 'n' Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul) is a live album by Jeff Beck, recorded as a tribute album to the late guitarist Les Paul.[1]

The album is recorded at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City where Les Paul played almost every week until his death in August 2009.[1] It was recorded on 9 June 2010, which would have been Les Paul's 95th birthday.

The songs played were popular hits from the 1950s and 1960s, including many songs Les Paul played himself. Jeff Beck is joined by Imelda May and her band, in addition to Jason Rebello, Brian Setzer, Trombone Shorty and Gary U.S. Bonds.[1] 

On some of the songs, May sings together with a pre-recorded voice of herself, imitating the [multitrack] recording technique used on songs sung by Les Paul's wife Mary Ford.

The DVD has been certified gold in Canada as of November 2011.[2]

 

[Mark Blackburn]

DOYLE DYKES -- New Bedell and old Martins

In under nine minutes Doyle Dykes provided fans of his LATE NIGHT PICKIN' YouTube show with an entertaining comparison of "old versus new" and I had to respond:

The BEDELL has (to my ears) a more balanced sound -- more like a Gibson than a Martin. Which made me wonder how the Bedell would compare to your Olson (James Taylor's weapon-of-choice). But what you did tonight was a joy to our ears -- trying as we must to hear the subtle differences in each splendid specimen of the luthiers' art.

You played each of these beautiful instruments at least twice -- in answer to my favorite question from your previous show -- from a die-hard Martin fan who sought your agreement that "Martins are the best guitars." Right?

Permit an aside: Chet Atkins gave me some advice I finally acted upon. That I should "get a Gibson, an old one that's been played a lot. They sound so fine." That was the summer of '71.

On a winter's day (2008) I took a Southern (Northern) Jumbo down from the wall at Long & McQuade (the largest Gibson dealer in Winnipeg).  And the moment I played it, it spoke to me: In my mind's ear, a Female voice (a 'Gibson Girl' as Chet would say) said loud and clear:  "I'm the one you've been waiting for. Take me home."

My Irene said, "It can be your Christmas present, your birthday gift and next year's Christmas present too."

In the music store Martins have a better bass, and brighter treble sounds. But home alone, my Gibson has a sound I can play by the hour and never tire of hearing.  All this, from another (unique) Random Late Night Pickin' show. Which is to say, Thanks, Doyle Dykes!

 

Favorite comment of the last half-hour from CURRON HILL (19 minutes ago) "The Bedell still sounds the best to me with the D28 second. But you could make an ole cigar box sound good!"

Edited January 13, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

NATALIE COLE – I'm Glad There Is You

 

I awoke from sleep a moment ago (exactly 3 a.m.)  and checked to see what's playing on Siriusly Sinatra:  From my favorite Natalie Cole album (Ask a Woman Who Knows) my favorite track, I'M GLAD THERE IS YOU.

 

In this world of overrated pleasures

and underrated treasures

I'm glad there is you ….

 

Concerning which, I wrote in an Amazon review (2005) :

 

Track 9. "I'm Glad There Is You" - A haunting Jimmy Dorsey/Paul Madeira Latin-influenced ballad from 1941--- ignored by everyone since the fifties. (Old-timers will immediately recognize this beautiful tune.) This time the orchestra is arranged by the (almost) incomparable Alan Broadbent. (If Sinatra were still with us, he'd be doing albums with Alan.)

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What would Nat Cole say of this album? I close my eyes and see Nat nodding in agreement, that his daughter's voice is even more beautiful, athletic and expressive than his own.

Nat was of course a jazz giant who played better piano than practically anyone (other than Oscar and Bill). But I believe in my heart he would agree, his little girl turned out to be an even better singer.

Some specifics about this wonderful album, Natalie's "best yet" (and there've been three great ones before this). For those who may still care "Who wrote that song?" this album could have used some liner notes! (So here are mine.)

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Is it at YouTube? Even better, a 'live' televised concert performance I see my namesake wrote a 'review' – in the wee small hours (2:00 a.m. 'I year ago') saying .... the exact same thing.  

 

“Is it at YouTube? Even better! This 'live' TV performance – from my favorite of her DVDs, a concert in England, I think. God how I miss Natalie Cole and waiting for her “next album of standards.” Thanks, Aioria Andrei for sharing.

 

https://www.facebook.com/mark.blackburn.3910/

Edited January 13, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

JONI MITCHELL – A Case of You

“Can I read to you?” said my Irene a moment ago, knowing I'd want to hear a brief article in today's paper headlined, “MITCHELL TO RECEIVE GERSHWIN PRIZE"

“WASHINGTON – A little over a year after being celebrated at the Kennedy Center, Joni Mitchell will return to Washington for another lifetime achievement honor: the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

“Mitchell, 79, is widely regarded as among the greatest singer-songwriters of her time, with her best-known works including Chelsea Morning, Big Yellow Taxi and Free Man in Paris [ ? ]

“'Joni Mitchell's music and artistry have left a distinct impression on American culture and internationally, crossing from folk music with a distinctive voice whose songs will stay with us for the ages' said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden in a statement, adding: 'Joni Mitchell's music has so many artists and music lovers all singing her tunes.'

“Mitchell, who lives in Los Angeles, will be honored March 1 at a tribute concert airing March 31 on PBS stations. Previous winners of the Gershwin Prize include Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Carole King.”

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I Googled for A CASE OF YOU – a favorite track from my favorite orchestral album by Joni – a Grammy-winner recorded with a huge 70-piece orchestra three decades ago. First offering at YouTube with “comments left on” – sure enough, celebrated “3 years ago” with cover art by Joni (a gifted painter too!)

Mark Blackburn (3 years ago) 

One of the songs by Joni on that 'orchestral' album was CASE OF YOU. My wife and I will live and die on Blueberry Bay (Winnipeg) -- on a pie-shaped lot, just 'round the corner from Ice Cream Lane. (That last bit, I made up). When we moved here in 1982 I had a then brand new cassette of a favorite old black vinyl album of Joni's: "BLUE." I would have played “A CASE OF YOU” for my Irene back then. Just played it for her now – sunlight streaming through a window, both of us feeling tears of joy, hearing this again. This and BIG YELLOW TAXI will always be my favorites of her songs.

Thanks, massimolenzo for this posting, for the graphic you selected Joni's "Me, seen from behind in that same bar"-- and thank you for the informed note about who played that soprano sax -- Wayne Shorter, and the beautifully-recorded stand up bass player, Chuck (the Great) Berghofer. Celebrated this day at [search] " Great Melody, Great Lyric, Great Rendition, Songwriting Workshop, Harmony Central "

 

Edited January 13, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

 

Edited January 14, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT / HARRY CONNICK – It Had to be You

Hard to believe it's been 33 years since Harry Connick re-introduced the song Johnny Mercer dubbed “the greatest popular song ever written” – IT HAD TO BE YOU. Composed almost a century ago by Isham Jones and Gus Kahn. Harry's version (my 'other favorite' after Tony Bennett's recording of 66 years ago) was recorded for the movie soundtrack of 'When Harry Met Sally' and is heard a couple or three times a year on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio.

Coincidentally (or not) Tony Bennett just singled it out, on his Facebook page -- the 66^th anniversary of his “TONY” album (Track 1). It has its own Wikipedia entry (below)

 

Wikipedia note

IT HAD TO BE YOU  has had a notable film presence, appearing on the soundtracks of many motion pictures. The song was performed by Ruth Etting in the 1936 short Melody in May, by Priscilla Lane in the 1939 film The Roaring Twenties, by Ginger Rogers and Cornel Wilde in the 1947 film It Had to Be You, in the 1944 film, Mr. Skeffington, by Danny Thomas in the 1951 film I’ll See You in My Dreams (based loosely upon the lives of song lyricist Gus Kahn and his wife, Grace LeBoy Kahn).

“It was also performed by Dooley Wilson in the 1942 film Casablanca, George Murphy in Show Business (1944), Betty Hutton in the 1945 film Incendiary Blonde, and Diane Keaton in the 1977 film Annie Hall. As the ‘theme’ of the 1989 motion picture When Harry Met Sally… (1989), ‘It Had to Be You’ finished as #60 in AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.

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Harry's official video posted 6 years ago recently topped 2 million views. Still makes my heart sing. Yours too?

 

Edited January 14, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TOMMY EMMANUEL – The Tall Fiddler

 

In the Wikipedia entry for Oklahoma's former state capitol of “Guthrie” (population 10K) there's a brief entry for “Byron Berline – Bluegrass musician.” (Wiki note below)

By the time of his death in the summer of 2021, his name topped the list of Guthrie's “Notable People.” It was there in Guthrie that my finger-style guitar hero, Australian-born Tommy Emmanuel, became friends with “this great musician and wonderful person.” Mr. Emmanuel (now an American citizen based in Nashville) composed a fiddle tune – in Byron's honor: Still my all-time favorite Bluegrass virtuoso piece. Full stop. (Or 'double stop' as the fiddlers say.)

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Permit an aside: at Tommy's first appearance here in Winnipeg my guitarist grandson Thomas was with me, along with a dozen other guitarists, at the pre-show 'meet & greet' When it was my turn, I asked Tommy to play Tall Fiddler. He just smiled – as if to say, 'Oh, you like the hard ones.' Included mid-way through his program, and if he made a mistake, we didn't spot it.

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Delighted to see this more recent video of an older Tommy – “at the Ryman” in Nashville --- still playing it perfectly, and perhaps just a little bit faster than ever before. His shading – volume control at speed with just a flat pick – is breathtaking; especially what's happening around the 1:28 mark. 

 

Wikipedia note

Byron Douglas Berline[1] (July 6, 1944 – July 10, 2021) was an American fiddle player[2] who played many American music styles, including old time, ragtime, bluegrass, Cajun, country, and rock.

He played on "Country Honk" on the Rolling Stones' album Let It Bleed—the song the Stones later recorded as "Honky Tonk Women". (Source: album sleeve notes, Keith Richard's autobiography) Mick Jagger asked him to record the fiddle part out on the street to give it a better ambiance. A car horn that was picked up in this recording was left on the track, as Jagger thought it reflected the spirit of the song. At the time, Berline had just left the US army, and recording with the Stones catapulted his career exponentially.[3]

He won the National Oldtime Fiddlers' Contest Championship in Weiser, Idaho, in 1965,[4] and won it again in 1967 and 1970.

He joined The Flying Burrito Brothers in 1971, recording two albums, Last of the Red Hot Burritos (Live) and Six Days On the Road: Live in Amsterdam.[2] After the Burritos' breakup, Berline briefly worked with Stephen Stills's band Manassas . . .

Berline joined guitarist Dan Crary, banjoist John Hickman and others to form 'Byron Berline and Sundance'.A young Vince Gill later joined the band on mandolin.

In 1979 Berline had a small role as a country musician in the film The Rose. In 1987, he appeared briefly playing violin in the first-season episode "Where No One Has Gone Before" of Star Trek: The Next Generation.[3]

 

 

Edited January 15, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT / BILLY JOEL – The Good Life

 

It's been exactly 60 years since Tony Bennett recorded my favorite of his ballads from the 60s --THE GOOD LIFE. Like Frank Sinatra, Tony sometimes rescued from certain oblivion, songs we might otherwise never have heard. Like this one, composed by two Frenchmen who never had another hit; given its sublime English lyric by one “Jack Reardon” who disappeared without a trace. In fact the Wiki entry for the song doesn't mention Jack's name until detailing Tony Bennett's various recordings:

 

"The Good Life" (originally "La Belle Vie" in French) is a song by Sacha Distel with French lyrics by Jean Broussolle, published in 1962. It was featured in the movie The Seven Deadly Sins.

The song is best known in the English-speaking world via a 1963 recording by Tony Bennett with English lyrics by Jack Reardon. In the US, it was a number 18 hit on the U.S. pop singles chart, and number 7 on the Middle-Road Singles chart.[4] 

"The Good Life" became one of Bennett's staple songs, and was featured on four of his top-selling albums, including 1994's MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett and 2006's Duets: An American Classic, the latter featuring Billy Joel. Bennett also named his 1998 autobiography after the song. He continued to perform the song live and did so at his final concerts, at Radio City Music Hall, aged 95.

----

Google for it and the first offering this day at YouTube is from “The Making of Duets” – hosted by the late producer extraordinaire, Phil Ramone, who left us a decade ago.

Among the comments, I just spotted a note from a dear friend of mine, Samuel Chell – a professional jazz pianist and retired professor of English at a college in Wisconsin. Under his Amazon reviewer pen name, Sam shared this insight:

 

Caponsacchi

2 years ago

Sometimes I have the impression that people hear this song but don't listen attentively enough to catch the profound irony of the lyric. It's not about celebrating the "good life": It's about kissing "the good life" goodbye. That life was a time of shallow, selfish living--characterized by Romantic love, which is, by nature, selfish, self-centered, pleasure loving, fulfilling the hedonistic need of the child. It falls in the the category of "Eros," far short of Caritas (friendship) or Agape (spiritual love). It's glorious song--one that is especially effective because it paints a vivid picture of those good ole playboy days that must be kissed goodbye for growth, maturation and a fuller self-realization.

 

 

Edited January 15, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

JAMES TAYLOR (THE MACCABEATS & NATURALLY 7)  –  Shed a little light (oh Lord) 

 

“Let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King . . . ”

Still my favorite song for the occasion – and favorite cover of James Taylor's "Shed A Little Light (oh Lord)"   – first posted to his Facebook page seven years ago today, with the note:

“In honor and celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr, we hope you enjoy this version by The Maccabeats and Naturally 7 as much as James did." 

#MLKDay (Video: Uri Westrich)

James Taylor writes the best bridges –  those middle parts of his songs, where the melody soars away in a new direction, taking our hearts with it.  Case in point:   

“Can't get no light from a dollar bill …  
don't give me no light from a TV screen
when I open my eyes I want to drink my fill
from the well on the hill”

First version offered at YouTube this day (nearing 1M 'views')

 

Edited January 16, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

JAMES TAYLOR AND THE LOWCOUNTRY VOICES -- Shed a Little Light

That said, THIS performance is still my 'go-to-for-goosebumps' rendition:  James Taylor with "The Lowcountry Voices" choir of Charleston, South Carolina.  Concerning which, my namesake wrote (2 years ago):

 

My favorite modern Gospel song:  Once a year in January (close to Martin Luther King's birthday) I search YouTube for any new version of James Taylor's SHED A LITTLE LIGHT. Just to see if it still gives me goosebumps, and tears of Joy. Never fails!  This one's the best yet:  James Taylor [with] “THE LOWCOUNTRY VOICES.”

As you may know, any live performance (when the choir is this big, spread across the stage) the sound is less than ideal, compared with an original studio recording. Plus, you know they wouldn't have had that much time for rehearsal. But this is a great choir.

Imagine if you were there, that night five years ago in Columbia S.C. the effect on your soul. I mean, if it can so affect us “by the light of a TV screen”.

A lesser composer than James Taylor might not have come up with the song's uplifting bridge – taking the melody in an entirely new direction, and (around 3:18) our hearts soar at the words, “Can't get no light from a dollar bill . . . Don't give me no light from a TV screen . . . ”

Yes, like something from The Great American Songbook (as celebrated in his latest album 'American Standard') his best songs have great 'bridges.' And this remains one of Mr. Taylor's very best. Every time I hear this great song, I think of my late Mom: She wrote a three-stanza poem (the best kind, right?) called “Ode to a Choir” (concluding with these words)

“Ah, Beauty's NOT a fleeting thing! It lifts the soul, and makes it sing – a choir of souls to lift in turn. Though memory fade, and senses jade, Beauty, SHARED, becomes Infinity.”

 

 

Edited January 16, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

Carol Sloane – The Very Thought of You (live)

 

It's midnight and Siriusly Sinatra is playing “Carol Sloane – The Very Thought of You.” A live performance that includes her spoken introduction about the song's opening verse (which I never knew existed!). To laughter from an appreciative audience Carol says,

“I wonder if YOU'VE ever heard the verse? …. Do NOT shout it out, before I get to the chorus!”

One of several great songs composed (words & tune) in the 1930s by English band leader Ray Noble – just in time for his first visits and tours of the U.S. – his popular band supplemented by some terrific American jazz musicians, including my finger-style guitar hero George Van Epps.

Thanks to Siriusly Sinatra programmer 'Jersey Lou' Simon for sharing this one -- and knowing it's been posted at YouTube:  A live performance with piano trio, plus a beautiful tenor sax solo on the musical bridge, by someone very good, channeling Stan Getz.

Carol's Wiki entry below reminds us that she turns 86 in March (exactly one week before my own 76^th birthday). Here's wishing you many more, Carol Sloane!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A-ZILKuQs8

 

Wikipedia

Carol Sloane (born March 5, 1937) is an American jazz singer born in Providence, Rhode Island, who has been singing professionally since she was 14, although for a time in the 1970s she worked as a legal secretary in Raleigh, North Carolina. In addition, between September 1967 and May 1968, she occasionally wrote album reviews for Down Beat.[1] She lives in Stoneham, Massachusetts.[2]

One of her early efforts was working with Les and Larry Elgart's orchestra. Later she filled in for Annie Ross of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. By 1961, success at the Newport Jazz Festival led to albums for Columbia Records.[3] Her career stalled for a time in the 1970s, but resumed by the 1980s. 

In 1983 she found a nickel under her carseat and brought it to a psychic who told her she should sign with Concord Records and would have some successes touring in Japan.

April 2016 Sloane was among the inductees into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame.[5]

Sloane: A Jazz Singer, the documentary feature film profiling her career is currently in production.[6]

 

Edited January 17, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT – Midnight Sun

 

It's 4 in the morning and Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is playing the best arrangement I ever heard of Johnny Mercer's MIDNIGHT SUN – sung by Tony Bennett. I recognize the orchestration – by a friend of my father's Robert Farnon. Friends since 1944 when Bob arranged a song by a soldier George Blackburn to play on the BBC in the months before D-Day . Both born in 1917, they died within a year of each other, having maintained their friendship, by letter and by phone: Dad in Ottawa Canada, and Mr. Farnon on the Channel Island of Guernsey.

It's from a Tony Bennett album that, coincidentally or not, I'd brought up from our basement recently, just to look at the cover of a black vinyl LP that never made it to compact disc format. “THE GOOD THINGS IN LIFE – Tony Bennett & The Robert Farnon Orchestra.”

Farnon who stayed in England after WWII, created for Tony's Midnight Sun a huge, open sky orchestration – worthy of the phenomenon that Japanese visitors tell us is at its very best, right here in Manitoba. Apparently we are 'the place to be' for the most spectacular Northern Lights displays anywhere on earth. (Certainly the one closest to a major city with an international airport and regular connecting flights to Japan.)

The source of my favorite “I had to pull over to the side of the road” story – about Mercer hearing the instrumental version while driving in his car -- and finding the closest pay phone, to ask the DJ at the radio station: 'Who wrote that song?' Vibes virtuoso Lionel Hampton co-wrote the melody with Sonny Burke in 1947 (a very good year). It's a story that made it into the song's Wikipedia entry (below)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to4UmPozSe0

 

Wikipedia

Johnny Mercer was driving along the freeway from Palm Springs to Hollywood, California, when he heard the instrumental on his car radio and started to set words to the song as he drove.[6] The lyrics were first recorded by June Christy for her 1954 album Something Cool.

One famous recording of the song with the Mercer lyrics is by Ella Fitzgerald on her album Like Someone in Love from 1957. Fitzgerald recorded the song again in 1964 for her album Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook and once more in 1978.

"Midnight Sun" also became part of the repertoire of Carmen McRae after she recorded it first in 1955.

Tribute albums to both singers by following jazz vocalists like Dee Dee Bridgewater or Vanessa Rubin included the song associated with them, just like Natalie Cole sang the song in a tribute show called "We Love Ella" at the University of Southern California's Galen Center in 2007.[7]

 

Edited January 17, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

RAY CHARLES / DIANA KRALL – You Don't Know Me

 

Playing this hour on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio -- my “other favorite recording by Ray Charles” – YOU DON'T KNOW ME – Ray's terrific late-in-life duet with Diana Krall. Her favorite Ray Charles tune, Diana requested that it be their duet for Ray's “Genius Loves Company” album – a best-seller recorded exactly 20 years ago.

James Taylor, who performed on the same album one of his own compositions Track 2 Sweet Potato Pie (with his lead guitarist playing licks Ray Charles openly admired) was asked not so long ago to answer a rapid fire series of questions that included: “Which song by someone else, do you most wish you'd written?”

After joking that would be have to be Billie Jean from Michael Jackson's THRILLER (a reference to its record-setting royalties with sales of over 40 or 50 million) James turned serious and said he'd pick “You Don't Know Me – a very good song.”

With lyrics by Cindy Walker, her words set to a perfect tune by Eddy Arnold the dean of country-western singers in the 1950s who left us in 2008. You Don't Know Me borrowed a favorite line from Rodgers & Hammerstein's IF I LOVED YOU: the one about “longing to tell you, but afraid and shy, I let my golden chances pass me by.”

----

There are 'show me' lyrics, and there are “tell me” lyrics:  Show me you love me, don't just say the words.  And You Don't Know me is our favorite example. 

Google the song title, and this is is the first offering today at YouTube, lovingly combined with a very good slide show, you may agree.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynBH6nbCkj4

 

Wikipedia

Genius Loves Company is the final studio album by rhythm and blues and soul musician Ray Charles, posthumously released August 31, 2004, on Concord Records.[1] Recording sessions for the album took place between June 2003 and March 2004.[2] The album consists of rhythm and blues, soul, country, blues, jazz and pop standards performed by Charles and several guest musicians, such as Natalie Cole, Elton John, James Taylor, Norah Jones, B.B. King, Gladys Knight, Diana Krall, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson and Bonnie Raitt. Genius Loves Company was the last album recorded and completed by Charles before his death in June 2004.

On February 2, 2005, Genius Loves Company was certified triple-platinum [ ] following sales of over three million copies in the United States alone.[4]  Charles' second album to reach number one on the Billboard 200, after Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music (1962). On February 13, 2005, the album was awarded eight Grammy Awards including Album of the Year and Record of the Year.

 

Just listening to James Taylor's best duets (or at least my favorites) -- with Tony Bennett (Put on a Happy Face) and this one, James' & Ray's Sweet Potato Pie.   Track 2 on the Genius Loves Company album, recorded exactly 20 years ago. Some musical joys never grow old. Case in point. 

 

Edited January 18, 2023 by Mark Blackburn

[Mark Blackburn]

TONY BENNETT & LADY GAGA – Anything Goes

You're Cole Porter and you're sitting down to write a song titled Anything Goes. What rhymes with “goes”? Why, “when you propose,” might be one; and for another, why not “gigolos”? The brilliance of how Mr. Porter saves the rhyme word till the end of a six line stanza, where each line ends with the word “today.” And with all rhymes along the way, 'internal' -- until at last 

The world has gone mad, today
and good's bad, today
and black's white, today
and day's night, today
When most guys, today
that women prize, today
are just silly …. gigolos!

From 8 years ago (and 2.8 million 'views'), still the best live performance we could ever imagine. Thanks for sharing, Lady Gaga. Celebrated elsewhere [search] “ Great Melody, Great Lyric, Great Rendition, Songwriting Workshop, Harmony Central ”

P.S. Whenever you search for a Cole Porter lyric, don't be surprised to find a couple or three extra stanzas you never heard before. Like this one:

If saying your prayers you like,
If green pears you like
If old chairs you like,
If back stairs you like,
If love affairs you like
With young bears you like,
Why nobody will oppose!

 

 

[Mark Blackburn]

SIT DOWN YOU'RE ROCKIN' THE BOAT – 3 versions: Stubby Kaye (1955) James Taylor (2020) John Pizzarelli -- 'live' tonight (1/19/2023)

 

“ … and I hollered, 'Someone fade me' ...

 

Says a gambler named “Nicely” at the opening of SIT DOWN YOU'RE ROCKIN' THE BOAT – from the movie version (1955) of Frank Loesser's Guys & Dolls.

Google to ask: “What does 'someone fade me' mean? Urban Dictionary replies:

 

When you're playing in a open game of craps (not in a casino), you need someone to put up money against what you're betting. The person putting up that money is fading you  ...

 

“Tell us, Nicely” says Sinatra's character in the film version: “Tell us, in your own words.”

What follows – Stubby Kaye's performance (with chorus) --- is many people's favorite moment in musical film history. If you've never seen it, you are in for a treat. Better than the Broadway performance, because he sits down in silence.  In the theater the audience goes nuts. A show stopper as they used to say.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJq7J2uzSlc

 

 

Coincidentally (or not) I was poised this day to go to James Taylor's Facebook page to leave a comment about this very song: Together with John Pizzarelli, James Taylor won the 2021 Grammy for the “arrangements for two-guitars” on his AMERICAN STANDARD album. I've never seen a comment anywhere about the brilliance of their terrific version of Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat. For me, it's “the best since the original" -- Stubby Kaye in 1955.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smbNWKYqv_4

 

 

Fresh from their 'Jazz Cruise' on a luxury liner off the Florida coast last week, John Pizzarelli selected this one, for a “little cruise medley” -- two tunes (the other, Red Sails in the Sunset). You can tell it's been two years since John went near the simple but difficult to play melody: he sort of butchers it -- but slowly, lovingly – endearingly: eliciting a dry comment from Jessica Molaskey: “I think you might need an extra week on that one.”

In a terrific show, chock full of highlights, this one is around the 20:05 mark.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=notif&v=884389362710894&notif_id=1674169201056067&notif_t=live_video_explicit

 

 

Edited January 20, 2023 by Mark Blackburn