Mark Blackburn

GORDON LIGHTFOOT – If You Could Read My Mind Gordon Lightfoot died yesterday at age 84. Canadian newspapers including our own Winnipeg Free Press were ready with front page notices (“See page 4”) and extensive obituaries. Those of us 'of an age' have our own favorite memories of a performer who was so admired by other singer-songwriters: Bob Dylan called him “a rare talent.” Among his best ballads was this one (singled out here about 40 pages and a thousand comments ago): SONG FOR A WINTER'S NIGHT - Gordon Lightfoot When I was 21 (it was a very good year) I got to see Gordon Lightfoot perform this lovely ballad at a high school auditorium in my hometown of Ottawa Canada. A sell out crowd of 600 (correct) where his previous performance at a coffee house had attracted 50 per night. His star was rising and his second album -- with SONG FOR A WINTER'S NIGHT (and Canadian Railroad Trilogy) had just been released. We called him GORD (as if we'd known him personally) and . . . oh, the magic of his live performances. We must have looked like this audience, faces almost sombre in solemn appreciation of the beauty unfolding before us. They categorized him as "folk" music but you listen to a ballad like this one (especially loved by guitar giant Jerry Reed) and you realize that Gord transcended musical categories. A rare video from the early days of color TV in Canada. What a time capsule treat! Still gives me goose bumps, for reasons I can't put in words. Lightfoot's artless words remind us that there are "Tell me" song lyrics and "Show Me" -- the latter are rarer and usually better. Case in point. “The fire is dying now, my lamp is growing dim / The shades of night are lifting / The mornin' light steals across my windowpane Where webs of snow are drifting / If I could only have you near, to breathe a sigh or two -- I would be happy just to hold the hands I love / On this winter's night with you” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfyDs6uXww0 https://www.facebook.com/mark.blackburn.3910?comment_id=Y29tbWVudDo3ODc1NTE3MTk0MDE5NDNfNTk0MTUzNzg5MzMzMTk5

ELIANE ELIAS – There Will Never Be Another You My favorite song to play when trying out a new instrument at the guitar store is THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER YOU – from my second-favorite composer after Dick Rodgers – Harry (Salvatore Guaragna) Warren. So. It's quarter to three, and there's no one in the place except you and me, and Siriusly Sinatra is playing my new favorite jazz version – by Brazilian singer / pianist Eliane Elias. Is it at YouTube? Even better: Eliane and the late great Chick Corea 'alone together' with Yamaha concert grand pianos – the best 'four-handed' rendition I could even imagine. Made all the more poignant because Chick Corea died that same year, 2021. Google to be reminded that he was the most decorated of all jazz pianists: he won 27 (correct) Grammy awards and was nominated more than 70 times. Really, isn't this wonderful? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZTq0siU3Ik Wikipedia: Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American jazz composer, pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and occasional percussionist.[2][3] His compositions "Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba", and "Windows" are widely considered jazz standards.[4] As a member of Miles Davis's band in the late 1960s, he participated in the birth of jazz fusion. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever.[3] Along with McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, and Keith Jarrett, Corea is considered to have been one of the foremost jazz pianists of the post-John Coltrane era.[5] Corea continued to collaborate frequently while exploring different musical styles throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He won 27 Grammy Awards and was nominated more than 70 times for the award. Corea celebrated his 75th birthday in 2016 by playing with more than 20 different groups during a six-week stand at the Blue Note Jazz Club in Greenwich Village, New York City. "I pretty well ignore the numbers that make up 'age'. It seems to be the best way to go. I have always just concentrated on having the most fun I can with the adventure of music."[20] Corea died of a rare form of cancer shortly after his diagnosis. He died at his home near Tampa Bay, Florida on February 9, 2021, at the age of 79.[2][33][34]

JACK SHELDON – That Old Black Magic I awoke today thinking of the great musicians, most of them no longer with us, who played with Doc Severinsen in Johnny Carson's Tonight Show orchestra – and trying to recall their longest-serving piano player – who at the end of his life recorded my favorite 'alone together' albums with trumpet great Jack Sheldon. Just the two of them. The name came back to me – “Ross Tompkins” – just as I checked to see 'what's playing right this minute' on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio: Sure enough (if I didn't know better I'd say What a coincidence!). For the third or fourth time in the past 24 hours, just for me, I like to think, channel 70 is playing Jack Sheldon and an uncredited Ross Tompkins and their delightful “New York Medley” – 8 or 9 minutes of musical joy (that features Vernon Duke's Autumn in New York, Rodgers & Hart's I'll Take Manhattan, and Kander & Ebb's New York, New York). Never at YouTube, including today, but the first Jack Sheldon offering there is one I haven't seen before – a 'live' big band performance in New York almost 40 years ago; posted by a great trumpet-player and a great arranger in his own right, John LaBarbera (Wiki note below). He included a note that this performance of Johnny Mercer's OLD BLACK MAGIC combines “for all you Jack Sheldon fans, comedy and trumpet, plus a great chart by Bill Holman.” At New York's Beacon Theater, March 17, 1984. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH0OsStvspY&t=18s John LaBarbera (born November 10, 1945) is a trumpeter and arranger who worked with the Buddy Rich Orchestra during the late 1960s. LaBarbera joined Buddy Rich's band in 1968, but moved to Buddy DeFranco's Glenn Miller Band later that year, before rejoining Rich in 1971.[1] "In the 1980s and 1990s he worked principally as a composer and an arranger, supplying new scores for college and high-school big bands and fulfilling commissions for films, television, and commercials".[1] In the area of jazz education, he "directed jazz ensembles at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, from 1988 to 1991 and then joined the faculty in the jazz studies program at the University of Louisville".[1] His On the Wild Side was nominated for a Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album Grammy award in 2004.

UAN RASEY – Love Theme from 'Chinatown' After posting the above, I re-watched the Jack Sheldon documentary last night and was reminded that Jack had a teacher – a life-long coach actually, by the name of UAN RASEY. Who in old age (he died in 2011) provided this superb documentary with the most profound insights into Jack Sheldon's personal life as well what makes for great trumpet playing. Mr. Rasey should know. Hollywood's greatest musicians considered him, as Andre Previn put it simply, “The best trumpet player in Hollywood history.” A 90th birthday article (a month before his passing) noted that ... Heard on the sound tracks of dozens of motion pictures, Rasey was acclaimed as one of the most gifted trumpet artists of the twentieth century. André Previn, who was Rasey’s colleague in the MGM studio orchestra in the 1940s and ’50s, offered a birthday accolade typical of those who knew and worked with him: "He was not only the best trumpet player working at the film studios in Hollywood, but also a kind and good friend." From 1949 through the first half of the 1970s Rasey was first trumpet of the nonpareil MGM studio orchestra. His teaching has inspired many of the leading studio and jazz trumpeters of the past sixty years, among them Fats Navarro, Pete Candoli, Arturo Sandoval and Jack Sheldon. For a summary of Rasey’s career and to hear one of his most celebrated solos, go to this Rifftides piece posted on his birthday, when 40 trumpeters appeared outside Rasey’s house to serenade him with “Trumpeter’s Prayer.” His grandson, Tristan Verstraten, told me this evening that his grandfather died peacefully in his sleep at Woodland Hills Kaiser Hospital in Los Angeles, where he had been taken after his heart and kidney problems worsened. Three of his children were with him. Recalling Rasey’s spirit and character, Mr. Verstraten told this story: When he was 89 years old, he learned that his seven-year-old granddaughter Taylor had no way home from school because her mother had been delayed. Rather than let her wait, possibly for a long time, he called Access Paratransit. Blind and in his wheelchair, he got into the Access van and traveled three miles to the school. When he got there, he wheeled himself into the school, found Taylor and took her home in the van. Then, when they got to the house he fixed her a meal, and when Taylor’s mom got home, she found the two of them partying, having a great time. There will be no funeral service, Mr. Verstraten said, but a celebration of life, “a shindig,” will be scheduled in a couple of weeks. Known not for improvising but for the perfection of his technique and the purity of his sound, Rasey tells his students, “Roar softly,” and “Have reverence for every note.” If you can’t quite bring his sound to mind, here he is playing Jerry Goldsmith’s love theme from Chinatown. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egga1aB05nA

JACK SHELDON – Here's That Rainy Day Having posted here a thousand times, I realize that there are probably not enough hours left in my life to re-visit and savor “just once more” all my favorites: The same poignant thought most of us have each time we look at our book shelves, or boxes of CDs gathering dust in the basement and realize: There just ain't enough hours left to re-visit all “my favorite things.” Unless .... we pick one or two that would still meet our “play this at my funeral” criteria. Like this one. Jack Sheldon left us three years ago – not long after I'd posted an appreciation at his Facebook page, and re-worked it here (40 pages ago). Hope it's still enjoyable! “Earlier today I learned from a kindred spirit at Sinatra Family Forum of the passing of my all-time favorite trumpet virtuoso. Coincidentally (or not) this very day I had looked over a basement bookshelf and . . . there it was: my all time favorite music video: "JACK SHELDON – TRYING TO TO GET GOOD -- a Penny Peyser (Jack's daughter) film.” I pick it up and look at the cover: “Compelling and Highly Entertaining” – said Leonard Maltin ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT. "Featuring Chris Botti, Billy Crystal, Clint Eastwood, Tierney Sutton and many more.” Just put the DVD into the dusty player and – immediately had to transcribe its interview with a songwriting hero of mine, Dave Frishberg: “It was Los Angeles. I think the year may have been 1953 or 54. We are playing in the orchestra at Zardi's (sp?) It's a Sunday afternoon. The place is crowded. [The band] knew, in those days you wore a suit and tie – by the book: we ALL had suits and ties on and . . . “Jack comes in, with a big Hawaiian shirt, and swimming trunks. And like, thongs on the feet. He's come from the beach: his hair was practically bleached by the sun. He was like a Golden Surfer Boy. And he is carrying a trumpet. He came up on the bandstand and played with us. I'll never forget it. I said, Who IS that guy? Somebody said, 'That is Jack Sheldon.' “My first gig with Jack: I don't remember who called me, but someone said: Jack Sheldon wants you to work with him. What I remember most was when the gig ended, when I discovered my car had been towed away. And impounded. It was a terrible hassle to get my car back. So yes, I'll never forget my first Jack Sheldon gig. And, as it turned out, it was quite representative of all the gigs that followed!” ---- May I repeat, this is my favorite such music special on DVD “The Jazz Odyssey of Jack Sheldon: You may remember him as Merv Griffin's trumpet-wielding sidekick, or the indelible voice on SCHOOL HOUSE ROCK . . . Trying to get Good takes a look deep inside the eternally-dissatisfied soul of an artist who's not only just trying to get good on the trumpet, but in his life as well.” The film's opening words, set to the sound of Jack playing Stardust over early black & white home movies of Jack's Mom – teaching babies in the neighborhood to swim in the backyard pool. Jack says, “To me Jazz is freedom – a live solo on stage, to me it becomes validating: I become a different person, and become really valuable on stage; I become natural there. Like I am doing something really worthwhile. Everything else is just preparing to go on stage.” ---- Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio introduced me to my favorite of Jack Sheldon's latter day recordings – with the tightest jazz band arrangement of HERE'S THAT RAINY DAY. His vocal is artless genius. You think, Heck I could sing like that. Oh no you can't. Listen again to the solo that begins about a minute in. To paraphrase Sinatra (in the original That's Entertainment film, introducing Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell's 8-minute spell-binding dance performance of Porter's 'Begin the Beguine') -- “You can wait around a hundred years and you'll never (hear) the likes of this again.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5dfRWyNQy4

CAROL KAYE -- Lady Bass Legend who recorded "10,000 sessions" “I was 13” recalls 'sessions legend' Carol Kaye “and this traveling salesman with a steel guitar said, 'For ten bucks you can buy this little steel and get two or three lessons' …. ” From an inspired feature interview (by 'The Snapshots Foundation') with an 88 year old original member of Hollywood's “Wrecking Crew” – who each did recording sessions numbering in the thousands with so many important artists. What a delight to hear Carol Kaye in her own words. Love the comments elicited by this great feature including this one from SARAH (2 years ago): "Carol Kaye's story needs to be commemorated in a major feature film. She is a musical magician and should get the recognition she deserves. Her instrumental ingenuity permeates throughout American music for decades and yet people rarely even know her name. She's amazing and inspiring 🎸 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4JWqK6r6N4 Wikipedia: According to the New York Times, she played on 10,000 recording sessions.[12] She appeared on sessions by Frank Sinatra, Simon & Garfunkel, Stevie Wonder, Barbra Streisand, The Supremes, The Temptations, the Four Tops and The Monkees.[13] She played electric bass on Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'", while Chuck Berghofer played double bass.[14][15] She also came up with the introduction on fellow session player Glen Campbell's hit "Wichita Lineman".[16] Kaye later said that during the 1960s, she would sometimes play three or four sessions per day, and was pleased that so many of them created hit records.[15] Through her work with Spector, Kaye caught the attention of The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, who used her on several sessions, including the albums Beach Boys Today, Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!), Pet Sounds and Smile.[2] Unlike other sessions, where she was free to work out her own bass lines, Wilson always came in with a very specific idea of what she should play.[2] By Pet Sounds, Wilson was asking musicians such as Kaye to play far more takes than typical sessions, often running over ten passes of a song, with sessions stretching well into the night.[17] https://www.facebook.com/mark.blackburn.3910/

TONY BENNETT – Young and Foolish (original 'orchestral' version) As it so often does, Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is at this moment, introducing me to a “new favorite” version of a song Tony Bennett made most memorable in his mid-1970s recordings with pianist Bill Evans. One of my favorite of their 'alone together' renditions; the version playing on channel 70 right now though is “orchestral.” Google to learn it's from his 1963 album “This is All I Ask” – Tony and the Ralph Sharon Trio with vocal chorus and orchestra arranged and conducted by Ralph Burns. Is it at YouTube? But of course! Thanks to Siriusly Sinatra's programmer extraordinaire 'Jersey Lou' Simon for sharing this gem right this minute. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYzQ7HmRW5U

FREDDY COLE – Once in a While / I'm Not My Brother, I'm Me When he left us, two summers ago at age 88, Freddy Cole left behind a delightful musical legacy. He outlived his more famous older brother by half-a-century and made enough fine recordings – mostly of great songs Nat Cole overlooked or never got around to recording, before dying much too young of cancer. Thankfully for us fans, Freddy Cole gets regular appreciation on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio; as I type this he is singing my new favorite version of ONCE IN A WHILE. Freddy was a terrific blues pianist but on this recording his piano accompanist is Bill Charlap (who picked up a Grammy with Tony Bennett six years ago for their 'alone together' Jerome Kern tribute album, “Silver Linings”). Great accompanists know just what to play (and what to leave out) and make it sound so easy, don't they? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jdEAElkXwk Google for Freddy Cole 'live' and the first offering this day is this, from “PlanBPro” 178,859 views Dec 21, 2006 Freddy Cole performs his popular song "I'm Not My Brother, I'm Me" during a performance in New York City in 2005. This performance was photographed by filmmaker Clay Walker for the documentary "The Cole Nobody Knows" which can be seen here - https://vimeo.com/claywalker/freddycole https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7sc1V02dLk&t=51s As if to say "Remember this?" (I don't) the intuitive genius at YouTube just sent me links to these words of praise for Freddy Cole [posted "January 28, 2020"] "I've been HIT by the great Freddy Cole!" "I was hummin' a tune, drinkin' in sunshine, when out of an orange-colored sky .... " Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio introduces us to lesser-known artists, such as Nat King Cole's kid brother, Freddy -- who in turn, does duets with terrific, up-and-coming artists like Deborah Silver. Coincidentally (or not) the shuffle play miracle at YouTube, sent me a 1992 concert performance by Freddy's late niece Natalie – singing her Dad's hit ORANGE COLORED SKY. Natalie's version is still my favorite. The next offering? Freddy Cole singing this one with Deborah Silver – whose vocal timbre and athleticism is remarkably like . . . Natalie! One good link leads to another and a Facebook friend – and fellow fan of Steve Tyrell – sent me a video preview of this very recording – with Mr. Tyrell joking with Mr. Cole about the best approach to a fast part of the lyric. Links to both below; the studio recording is the second one, uploaded by Ms Silver (to 447 “views” and zero comments). A joyful duet, you may agree! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYvR...q5MD5zkbCpFJHM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SosZUVqzRXc

Tomorrow (Sunday 4/16/2023) John will be at New York's 92nd Street Y to “see a classical guitarist live, for the first time in my life – Pepe Romero” (a Spanish-born classical and flamenco virtuoso now in his 80th year). Contrast that sedate image with the most frenetic performance of COFFEE IN A CARDBOARD CUP – a Kander & Ebb show tune from a long-forgotten Broadway show, '70 Girls 70' – by John Kander and Fred Ebb who, more famously, gave Liza and Frank one of their shared signature tunes, 'New York, New York'). A really witty song, and to perform this 'live' at this pace (without evident mistakes) just takes your breath away. Beginning around the 27:09 mark, and within a minute, John is double-timing it – and within another minute, accelerating the tempo to the max. “Whoo!” says Jessica. “Next time – de-caf! How you DO that!?” John admits he is pleased, saying: “That was MUCH better than I played it on the radio the other day!” https://www.facebook.com/JohnPizzarelliOfficial/videos/247849714274809 P.S. The pioneering greats on 7-string guitar – John's father Bucky and the 'father' of the instrument itself, George Van Eps – I imagine looking down in amazement at what John does with Cole Porter's Night and Day (around the 37:29 mark). It's not just that “every note's a chord” but where John would normally play single, melodic lines of improvisation – those too become flurries of little chords, of such devilishly-difficult complexity you realize that only John Pizzarelli could conceive and play them with such apparent ease. Love the moment (around the 39:50 mark) when John realizes he's split a nail – fumbling with a cell phone before the show. “That was the song I needed that nail-for – it made it – it survived.” Jessica adds: "Linda White says, 'Put that arrangement on your next album' and I agree!"

JOHN PIZZARELLI – As Time Goes By As if speaking to me personally (at the 21:24 mark) and saying: 'Maybe you'll like my version best!' John Pizzarelli plays AS TIME GOES BY better than I've ever heard it! Including the seldom-heard, longish opening verse – John's chord sequences are simply brilliant – an arrangement all his own – right through to a little coda at song's end – consisting of the first ten notes of the French national anthem (a musical motif heard throughout the movie Casablanca). Yes indeed – “my new favorite version” of what my own musical father dubbed “Maybe the best song ever written ABOUT love.” Just one of umpteen 'highlights' this week, on a terrific 'short' program (37 minutes) Show No. 122. John tells us he won't be doing another live show until after “a one-week engagement at Birdland” to celebrate the release of (his latest CD) 'Stage & Screen'.” Stay tuned five minutes later, for an achingly beautiful but seldom-heard ballad – THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL: film composer David Raksin's “other best melody” (after 'Laura' with Johnny Mercer). From a 1952 Kirk Douglas movie of that name. At song's end, John disarmingly attributes the arrangement to one of his father Bucky's jazz guitarist friends, Barry Galbraith – who left us 40 years ago at age 63. I imagine Barry looking down and smiling joyfully, at John's ability to listen to Barry's 1958 recording and then instantly transcribe it to perfection on 7-string guitar. Around the 24:19 mark immediately following his best version yet of 'One Note Samba' John launches straightaway into The Bad and The Beautiful. Compelled to single out John's (2) show-closers – favorite songs by my two favorite composers Richard Rodgers and Harry Warren: The More I See You (a favorite of John's mother's) follows an exquisite rendition of This Nearly Was Mine. Starting at around the 33:15 mark – this after John's best-ever rendition (I say) of Rodgers & Hammerstein's You've Got to be Carefully Taught – from the same Broadway show that gave us This Nearly Was Mine, South Pacific. https://www.facebook.com/JohnPizzarelliOfficial Is the Barry Galbraith arrangement/recording of The Bad and The Beautiful at YouTube? Yes!

SINATRA – As Time Goes By At this moment Siriusly Sinatra is playing the definitive version of AS TIME GOES BY. Half a lifetime ago (I'm 76) my generation was introduced to this one by Harry Nilsson – on his A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night album – with London Symphony musicians arranged and conducted by one of Sinatra's great arrangers Gordon Jenkins. Described on Harry's black vinyl LP album cover as perhaps “the greatest love song” of them all. Or as my late father said, “Maybe the best song ABOUT love.” The version playing right now on channel 70 is from Sinatra's final album with Capitol records Point of No Return – with what turned out to be the final arrangements by Axel Stordahl who was with Sinatra in the 1940s and died of cancer soon after this recording in 1962. For his understated string arrangement, Mr. Stordahl allowed the opening and closing bars to be performed as solo accompaniment by Sinatra's career-long pianist Bill Miller. So. Sinatra – at the peak of his vocal powers and …. well, really – how could anyone improve on this? The song's Wiki entry is suddenly larger than I remember, with some interesting new notations about the composer. (below). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNuQ1l45DTQ Wikipedia "As Time Goes By" is a jazz song written by Herman Hupfeld in 1931. It became famous when it featured in the 1942 Warner Bros. film Casablanca, performed by Dooley Wilson as Sam. The song was voted No. 2 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs special, commemorating the best songs in film[1] (surpassed only by "Over the Rainbow" by Judy Garland). Background[edit] Herman Hupfeld wrote "As Time Goes By" for the Broadway musical Everybody's Welcome which opened on October 31, 1931. The song was re-introduced in the 1942 film Casablanca where it was sung by Sam, portrayed by Dooley Wilson. Sam's piano accompaniment was played by a studio pianist, Jean Vincent Plummer.[5][6][7] The melody is heard throughout the film as a leitmotif.[8] Wilson was unable to make a commercial recording of the song at the time due to the 1942–44 musicians' strike. Unable to record new versions of the song, RCA Victor reissued the 1931 recording by Rudy Vallée, which became a number one hit eleven years after it was originally released. Hupfeld lived his whole life in Montclair, New Jersey, and was a regular customer at the Robin Hood Inn (now the Valley Regency), a tavern built in 1922 on Valley Road, then part of Upper Montclair. He spent many hours at the piano and wrote several of his songs in this tavern. A plaque on the second floor of the Valley Regency Catering Facility in Clifton, New Jersey, commemorates the song. He wrote over one hundred songs, including "Let's Put Out the Lights and Go to Sleep," and the popular Great Depression song "Are You Making Any Money?"[11]

DOYLE DYKES – Riding to Circle Pines (and) What a Friend “A song I just finished,” says Doyle. “I call it RIDING TO CIRCLE PINES. Circle Pines is where this guitar was made.” It's a 'James Olson' instrument that Doyle calls his 'J-T' model – “same as the one James Taylor plays, with Brazilian Rosewood (back and sides) and a cedar top.” After playing for comparison his similarly-shaped Gibson 185 – and before he begins to play 'Riding to Circle Pines' (at around the 5:34 mark) Doyle notes the similarities between a Minnesota made 'James Olson' neck and the one designed for the world's finest nylon-string acoustic electrics made by California's 'Kirk Sand.' A song with a beautiful opening verse, as well as a bridge / release reminiscent of James Taylor songs – meaning it soars away in a new direction, taking our hearts with it. Stay tuned (around the 10:34 mark) for What a Friend We Have in Jesus – a 160 year old hymn that's been recorded by other finger-style virtuosos, including Australia's Tommy Emmanuel and England's Martin Taylor. Doyle's rendition is more fully developed, including as it does, an opening verse and closing coda he composed. The song's Wiki entry notes that the words of the hymn were “composed in Canada in 1855” and the famous melody was added in 1868 (note below). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ITagobnJts Wikipedia "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" is a Christian hymn originally written by preacher Joseph M. Scriven as a poem in 1855 to comfort his mother, who was living in Ireland while he was in Canada.[2] Scriven originally published the poem anonymously, and only received full credit for it in the 1880s.[3] The tune to the hymn was composed by Charles Crozat Converse in 1868. Renditions [edit] Washington Phillips, as "Jesus Is My Friend" (1928, Columbia Records)[5][6] Bing Crosby (1951, Beloved Hymns) Tennessee Ernie Ford (1958, Nearer the Cross, Capitol Records) Rosemary Clooney (1959, Hymns from the Heart, MGM Records) The Stanley Brothers (1960) Reno & Smiley and the Tennessee Cut-Ups (1963) Ella Fitzgerald with the Ralph Carmichael Choir (1967, Brighten the Corner) Thurl Ravenscroft (1970, Great Hymns In Story and Song) Aretha Franklin (1972, Amazing Grace) Mahalia Jackson Gospels, Spirituals, and Hymns. Ike & Tina Turner (1974, The Gospel According to Ike & Tina) Lester Flatt & and the Nashville Grass (1975), the LP Flatt Gospel. Also performed by Flatt & Scruggs while Flatt and Earl Scruggs played together. Bill Monroe (Bear Family (German) BCD-16639 My Last Days On Earth 1981-1994 Wade and Julia Mainer with unknown musicians (1989) Glen Campbell (1989, Favorite Hymns) Driving Miss Daisy (1989) sung at Little Friendship Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia The John Tesh Project (2000, Pure Hymns)[7] Amy Grant recorded it as part of the medley "What a Friend We Have in Jesus/Old Rugged Cross/How Great Thou Art" on her 2002 studio album Legacy... Hymns and Faith, and later included on her 2015 compilation album Be Still and Know... Hymns & Faith. Alan Jackson (2006, Precious Memories) Brad Paisley (2008, Play) Ronnie Milsap (2009, Then Sings My Soul) Hugh Laurie (2013, Didn't It Rain as "Changes" by Alan Price) Monty Alexander (2013, Uplift 2)[8] Perkins Twins (2018)

TRISHA YEARWOOD -- I'll Be Seeing You Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is playing a favorite track from Trisha Yearwood's Sinatra tribute album, recorded at the Capitol records 'tower studios' in Hollywood. Coincidentally, a friend and fellow alumnus of the (now defunct) Sinatra Family dot com website just shared a link about the soon-to-open 'Sinatra Bar & Lounge' in Nashville. To celebrate its opening next month Trisha Yearwood will be the first artist to perform there. As part of the private, invite-only April 14 grand opening, SiriusXM’s Siriusly Sinatra channel will present a live special featuring multi-award-winning country superstar Trisha Yearwood. "Let’s Be Frank with Trisha Yearwood LIVE from Sinatra Bar & Lounge in Nashville, Tennessee” will air from 6 - 8 p.m. CST, and will include interviews and performances, along with several selections from Yearwood’s 2019 tribute album Let’s Be Frank and other Sinatra tracks. Trisha Yearwood has lived in Nashville for most of her adult life and in recent years has been joined by a lot of singers and musicians who've moved there from California; among them, my favorite living jazz singer Calabria Foti. In a recent live performance in small town California my favorite living guitar virtuoso from Tennessee Doyle Dykes remarked on this fact: “I've met quite a few people” in the past year or two, who have made the move to Tennessee!” Check YouTube to find my namesake reviewed this “official” YouTube video “three years ago” and noting that Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is playing Trisha Yearwood's 'favorite cut' on her new “Let's Be Frank” album – recorded with a 55 piece symphony orchestra arranged by Vince Mendoza: not in Nashville, where today's Town Hall was recorded before a live audience, hosted by Sirius programmer 'Jersey Lou' Simon Trisha explains that “Nashville is where I've lived since age 19 – where I've recorded 99 per cent of my music – but to get that vibe, I had to go to Hollywood, to the Capitol Tower – a living museum," says Trish. "Sitting on the bar stool where Frank sat, singing into his (Neumann) mic.” What's your favorite track on the album, asked a woman in the studio audience. You could tell Trisha didn't want to single out just one favorite, but “thinking of my Mom and Dad who have passed, I had Mom in mind when I sang I'LL BE SEEING YOU” and she's the reason it's the closing track.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk3jTlt2Qss

DINAH SHORE / FRANK SINATRA – They Can't Take That Away From Me Bob Dylan's Facebook page (where I am suddenly this day a “Top Fan”) just shared a photo – of Bob with Dinah Shore, from the night of his induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Wonder how many of Bob's younger fans would recognize that beautiful smile and 'put a name to that face' of someone who was for a time television's most beloved variety show host. Coincidentally or not, I'd just been humming the melody to the words that Dinah sang each week to open her top-rated TV variety show, urging us to “See the U-S-A, in your Chevrolet!” I'd just been thinking of my favorite duet from the early days of black & white television – Dinah and her guest Frank Sinatra singing my favorite Gershwin tune, They Can't Take That Away From Me. Besides that most beautiful smile Dinah Shore had the most endearing laugh on television: Even when she tried to suppress it – as when Frank says brightly, “It's a switchblade!” in answer to Dinah's line about “the way you hold your knife." Is it at YouTube -- an old black & white video from over 60 years ago? Even better: Posted in color! Color TV, 1959? There's a story there ....

CALABRIA FOTI – Just One of Those Things “A trip to the moon on gossamer wings – just one of those things ” Favorite line from a Cole Porter tune that's been recorded by just about every important singer you could name since its introduction 80 years ago. But the version playing right now on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio is by “my favorite living jazz singer” Calabria Foti. Channel 70's programmer extraordinaire 'Jersey Lou' Simon introduced us to Calabria's greatness – and featured her on three “Playing Favorites” shows – the latest, this past Christmas. Now, on the eve of my 76th birthday (just for me, I'd like to think) they've been playing one or two of her recordings each day. This one's from her Cole Porter tribute album, In The Still Of The Night (2017). All the Amazon reviews (including my own) were chock full of superlatives about Calabria's singing – that would be hard to live up-to, if they were not the simple truth: She IS that good, you may agree! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YPxIw-ABek [Amazon editorial review:] Stunning vocalist Calabria Foti sings the songs of Cole Porter, revealing his most intimate, heartfelt, and vulnerable emotions. Backed by New York based chamber band guitarist Gene Bertoncini, clarinetist Eddie Daniels, cellist Richard Locker, bassist, Ike Sturm, drummer, Jared Schonig, and trombonist, Bob McChesney, "In the Still of the Night" is beautifully arranged by Grammy and Emmy winning producer and pianist Michael Patterson. This album follows up Calabria Foti's highly acclaimed CD, "A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening", and the Grammy nominated, "Let's Fall in Love" with Seth MacFarlane. About the recording of "In the Still of the Night", Foti says, ". . . singing these songs I felt that I was peeking into Porter's soul, telling the stories of his life, singing his words, feeling his longing for love, wearing his his heart on his sleeve." The feel of this record is reminiscent of a private soiree in the late 20s, as if the listener has been invited to a salon concert in someone's parlor. It's intimate, easy listening, with tender vocals and jazzy instrumentals. ---- The spotlight customer review at Amazon by “Rebecca” declares Calabria Foti “the new best friend of the Great American Songbook” [5 stars and titled:] Ear Candy Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2018 Verified Purchase I have totally enjoyed listening to Calabria Foti’s wonderful albums and [on this one] her vocal artistry is beyond beautiful. She can make even the most obscure Cole Porter song come alive. She stands out as one of the best female jazz singers of all-time and truly deserves a Grammy recognition. Apart from being a great singer, she is also a remarkable violin player. I have watched one of her live concerts and I could attest that she is a total performer on stage or studio recording. This [album] also boasts the outstanding works of soloists …. Eddie Daniels on clarinet, Bob McChesney on trombone, Richard Locker on cello and Ike Sturm on bass. The other musicians are Gene Bertoncini on guitar and arranger Michael Patterson on piano. In my opinion, Calabria Foti is the new Best Friend of the Great American Songbook ….

PAUL MCCARTNEY – More I Cannot Wish You Until Paul McCartney recorded MORE I CANNOT WISH YOU for his Grammy-winning 'Kisses On The Bottom' album (2012) this was a song with no Wiki entry of its own; Paul says in an impromptu introduction that, “It's a song I'd not heard ... because it didn't make it into the film version – only the stage version” (for the original Broadway cast recording of Guys and Dolls). Since the last time I checked (“1 year ago”) someone has included a new Wiki footnote among the “Notable Recordings”: Paul McCartney recorded the song for his album "Kisses on the Bottom" (2012) and his version changed the lyrics slightly from "With a sheep’s eye / And a lickerish tooth" to "With a sheepish eye, / And a look of the truth."[11] Describing his interpretation McCartney said, "It's a father talking to his daughter.... quite moving, very moving."[12] [Concerning the song's “development” there's another newer note:] Frank Loesser originally wrote the song for the 1949 movie Roseanna McCoy. In a scene in which the title character sat next to her elder brother in a wagon seat, her brother was to sing the song to her, "wishing her good fortune in the heart."[5] When the song was cut from the movie, because producer Samuel Goldwyn "neither liked nor understood the song,"[5] Loesser added the song to Guys and Dolls.[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPjw7pRims4&t=10s P.S. At around the 13:47 mark on his latest live-streamed “5 o'clock Somewhere” show (3/09/2023) my favorite jazz singer / guitar virtuoso John Pizzarelli recalled that "we did this song with Paul McCartney.” In fact, as the opening accompanist on the McCartney video, John's 7-string electric has never sounded better; his solo accompaniment at the start is a delight. As is Diana Krall's Irish-style, ballad 'coda' at song's end. https://www.facebook.com/JohnPizzarelliOfficial/videos/1217968908849431

OSCAR PETERSON – Little Girl Blue Just Googled those five words (above) plus “YouTube” – and there it is: Not just the best instrumental version of a favorite song by my favorite composer Richard Rodgers; quite simply my favorite solo jazz piano recording of all time. Recorded 55 years ago and yet the sound engineering quality has never been surpassed, you may agree! From the album “My Favorite Instrument” (one I reviewed at Amazon 21 summers ago). Google to be reminded about “which German-made piano was Oscar playing here – a 'Hamburg' Steinway or a Bosendorfer?” Instant answer (the first of “90,200 results in 0.41 seconds”) from an English fan site, Jazzwise: “Peterson never played better – something he would acknowledge in later years – than he did in the relaxed surroundings of Hans Brunner-Schwer's villa in the Black Forest, playing a concert grand Bösendorfer in his host's living room before a few invited guests. It seemed to bring the very best out of him, responding to the warmth and informality of the situation with some truly inspired playing.” ---- My Amazon review quoted from the liner notes of lyricist/composer Gene (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars) Lees. [5 stars and titled:] The greatest jazz piano album? It's more than that! Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2002 "I have believed for many years that Oscar Peterson is not only the greatest pianist in jazz today, but the greatest it has ever known. The style is drawn from many sources including Nat King Cole, Art Tatum, George Shearing, James P. Johnson, and others. Oscar's awareness of jazz history is so great that I doubt there's anything in the tradition of jazz piano that he hasn't encompassed in his work. Oscar is the great eclectic of jazz piano. Bach was a great eclectic. History cares less who did something first than it does who did it best. Oscar does all the things his predecessors did, but better. [Concerning this track Gene Lees added:] "If I were told that I could have only one track out of the album, and all the rest would be destroyed, Little Girl Blue is the one I'd select" [before one final superlative:] "I am tempted to say this is the greatest jazz piano album ever made. And maybe it is. But it's more than that. Said one fascinated musician on hearing it, 'This surpasses jazz.' So it does." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoFc_YfU6Lk&list=PLvawd7NJB1dx2nSZwHWAYyXUm7idd0YDL&index=26

LINDA LAVIN – Not a Care in the World [so] Shall We Dance There are not many songs by Vernon Duke that I “never heard before this minute” – but one is playing right now on Siriusly Sinatra. Linda Lavin – an actress I always liked who's also a very good cabaret singer performing NOT A CARE IN THE WORLD in medley with another song I'd not heard before SHALL WE DANCE – not the famous song of the same name from The King and I but the video includes a note that this Shall We Dance is by George and Ira Gershwin. Google for 'Not A Care In The World' and learn that it was composed by Vernon Duke (m) and John Latouche (w) – the same songwriters who penned one of my all-time favorite standards, 'Taking A Chance on Love.' Don't you love what Linda Lavin does with words like these …. Though skies are gray I'm as gay as a Disney cow Not a wrinkle upon my brow Not a cent 'in the red' not a care in the world. Recalling 'Disney cows' – the cartoon variety, with big heads (and small udders) dancing in fields of clover. Such a carefree image. Thanks Linda Lavin for sharing this. And thank you 'Jersey Lou' Simon for including on your playlist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRRt-C0POZ0

BOB DYLAN / FRANK SINATRA – Stay With Me Quick, name a song that only Bob Dylan and Frank Sinatra ever recorded (no one else of any note). If you could answer “Stay With Me” you're likely a big fan (as I am) of lyricist Carolyn Leigh. Her “Young at Heart” was a million-seller for Sinatra at a time when he really needed a hit song, and Carolyn composed several of Frank's life-long favorites performed until the end of his career – such as “Witchcraft” and “The Best is Yet to Come” (the latter phrase Frank wanted inscribed on his tomb stone). There came a day in late 1963 when Carolyn Leigh asked a favor of her good friend: Would Frank go into a studio immediately and record a song Carolyn had just co-written as the theme for an about-to-be-released Otto Preminger film, The Cardinal. The studio would have an orchestra ready and waiting, with an arrangement by its composer Jerome Moross. Frank agreed and requested the lyric ASAP. Recorded December 3, 1963 for release in January. Flash forward half a century to 2015 when Bob Dylan included on his Shadows of the Night album. Remarkably, his small country jazz band replicates with amazing precision the original arrangement. Let's play both, and include here the lyric Bob Dylan cherished for personal reasons (note below). Should my heart not be humble Should my eyes fail to see Should my feet sometimes stumble on the way, stay with me Like the lamb that in springtime wanders far from the fold Comes the darkness and the frost I get lost I grow cold I grow cold, I grow weary And I know I have sinned And I go, seeking shelter and I cry in the wind Though I grope and I blunder And I'm weak and I'm wrong Though the road buckles under where I walk, walk along Till I find to my wonder every path leads to Thee All that I can do is pray, stay with me Stay with me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt1BBubMHzM&t=169s Wikipedia Shadows in the Night, Fallen Angels and Triplicate In February 2015, Dylan released Shadows in the Night, featuring ten songs written between 1923 and 1963,[336][337] which have been described as part of the Great American Songbook.[338] All of the songs on the album had been recorded by Frank Sinatra, but both critics and Dylan himself cautioned against seeing the record as a collection of "Sinatra covers".[336][339] Dylan explained: "I don't see myself as covering these songs in any way. They've been covered enough. Buried, as a matter a fact. What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them. Lifting them out of the grave and bringing them into the light of day".[340] Shadows In the Night received favorable reviews, scoring 82 on the critical aggregator Metacritic, which indicates "universal acclaim".[341] Critics praised the restrained instrumental backings and the quality of Dylan's singing.[338][342] The album debuted at number one in the UK Albums Chart in its first week of release.[343]

JONI MITCHELL – Don't Worry 'Bout Me Wayne Shorter has left us at age 89. Among my own favorites of his many contributions to Grammy-winning albums were those he recorded for Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now (2000) -- “tenor and soprano sax” solos on four tracks: YOU'VE CHANGED, ANSWER ME MY LOVE, A CASE OF YOU and DON'T WORRY 'BOUT ME. Joni Mitchell's website recalls that Wayne Shorter's solos were “overdubbed later in Los Angeles” after Joni's return from London where she and arranger Vince Mendoza recorded the album “with a 90-piece symphony orchestra.” Hard to pick just one favorite from that 'short list' featuring Wayne Shorter. But James Taylor selected 'Answer Me My Love' for a two-part, on-line British broadcast promoting his own AMERICAN STANDARD album -- which won, 20 years later, the same category of Grammy that Joni picked up for this album. Coincidentally just yesterday, before we learned of Wayne Shorter's passing, Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio played Joni's Don't Worry 'bout Me. I was alone in the car and wondered aloud, “Now, is that one my favorite Wayne Shorter solo?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa8xeCgQAKo

JESSICA MOLASKEY - JOHN PIZZARELLI – I Want to be Happy With its syncopated rhythm and catchy tune I WANT TO BE HAPPY is a song that stays with you (be warned) for hours, even days after you first hear it. Composed almost a century ago by Vincent (Without a Song) Youmans to words by Irving Caesar – who made it in good health to age 101 – in part we may surmise, by composing a batch of happy songs circa 1925. Most notably, “Sometimes I'm Happy” (Sometimes I'm blue; my disposition depends on you). That's some people's favorite track on Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now' – Grammy-winning album of jazz standards which celebrated its 23rd anniversary this month (see previous page). If there'd been a poetry contest in 1925 requiring – “In 50 words or less” – the secret to happiness, these three stanzas would take the prize, no? Life's really worth living, when we are mirth-giving Why can't I give some to you? When skies are gray, and you say, you are blue I'll send the sun smiling through. I want to be happy, but I won't be happy, till I make you happy too! I haven't checked to see which recording is most famous but can't imagine a more entertaining version than this – a live stream performance from my “other favorite musical couple.” I defy you to watch this and NOT be happy! ---- P.S. In answer to my question yesterday – when he scat sings in perfect unison with his guitar playing, which is coming first in his mind – vocal or guitar? John said “The guitar leads the voice.” His performance here is a 'best possible example' of this art. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz3nNYD_4I0&list=RDMz3nNYD_4I0

PAUL MCCARTNEY – The Glory of Love We were discussing 'great love songs' – my musical father and me, a few years before his death. I remember asking his opinion about 'As Time Goes By' – from a 1943 film that Dad always said, “captured, better than any other movie” the mood of that period; people desperate to escape 'occupied' Europe and North Africa – "the collective anxiety." ME: Is it perhaps the greatest love song? DAD: Maybe the greatest song ever written ABOUT love.” I'm thinking of the “other greatest song ABOUT love” – THE GLORY OF LOVE – playing right this minute on Siriusly Sinatra satellite radio Paul McCartney and some stellar jazz musicians. Coincidentally I'd just been re-reading my favorite part of Paul's liner notes for that 'Kisses On The Bottom' album of standards and should- have- been- standards that Paul's father Jim enjoyed. Recalling the origins of the project, Paul wrote: "Eventually I just said, 'I really ought to do this, or I'll go off the idea and kick myself.' So I talked to a lady in our New York Office called Nancy Jeffries who knows all about the publishing side of the business and I said, 'If I was going to do it, who might I work with? Who might produce?' And she said, you should meet (producer) Tommy LiPuma. So I met with Tommy and he suggested Diana Krall. QUESTION: Were songs like these among the first you ever learned to play? PAUL: No I never learned how to play them. All I ever did was sing them at family sing-songs. There is this one song, HOME that I remember from my Dad's era. It's funny, when I suggested that one, Diana said, “Oh my gosh! I thought I was the only person on earth who knew that song!” And before The Beatles I actually used to do an instrumental version of it. I used to play a little guitar instrumental when me and John were just getting it together. So I had nice memories of that one.” [Poised to leave a comment on this Grammy-winning video, I find my namesake has already reviewed it – twice!] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wksNI8b_jx0

JANIS IAN - I learned the truth at 76 On his weekly 1-hour live stream "It's 5 o'clock Somewhere" show, my favorite jazz singer / guitarist JOHN PIZZARELLI (at around the 15:40 mark) played my new favorite version of I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face. Then read my mind. Permit a little background, please. I spent the decade of the 70s in Bermuda, working in radio and television, and in 1975 I can remember a 'jazz vocal' hitting my ears like a breath of fresh air – Janis Ian's poignant ballad AT SEVENTEEN which climbed to the top of our pop chart. I'm a guitarist and I can remember wondering if – at the end of the musical bridge – whether it was Janis herself playing a nylon-string guitar, for a quick sequence of nine notes, each one a chord. The orange label on the 45 rpm record said Janis had “arranged the horns.” But as to that lovely accompanying guitar? It only took half a century, until tonight, to 'learn the truth' (at 76). At the end of a single chorus of I'VE GROWN ACCUSTOMED TO HER FACE, something makes John Pizzarelli add a comment: After noting “that one is from My Fair Lady” and that “a single chorus” (lasting just one minute) “doesn't seem enough,” John says to my utter delight, “That reminds me … if any of you have Janis Ian's At Seventeen – and you hear the record – there's a little section, as it comes out of the instrumental [demonstrates that very sequence of nine notes played quickly as chords] “THAT lick,” John says, “played like that, twice – that's Bucky Pizzarelli.” ---- Search YouTube and there's this version, with the 45 rpm label, noting Janis Ian arranged the horns: Pick it up at the 3:00 mark – so those notes by Bucky tickle your ears at the 3:12 mark. John Pizzarelli link -- tonight's show on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/JohnPizzarelliOfficial/videos/165626369573318 “That was lovely. That's a beautiful song,” says Jessica Molaskey after her hubby plays ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE. Each time John plays it, it's better. This time at around the 34:14 mark. The composer Jerome Kern mistakenly believed that it was “too complex” ever to become popular: Easy to hum or whistle, yes – but a riot of modulations, key changes, that somehow, miraculously winds up back where it started out – in E-flat. John chose A-flat to match his high notes at the close. I am in awe that John Pizzarelli can play this differently each time, with gorgeous chord sequences. This time he slowed it down at the end, closing out-of-tempo, rubato – just when your ear is craving such a more reverential ending. (My own family's favorite song.) Last time John played All The Things You Are, Jessica wondered whether it wasn't dated – the words by Oscar Hammerstein – reasoning that “People don't talk that way any more.” “WHAT??!!” said John at the time, feigning great shock and quoting the most poetic part of the lyric: “You are the promised kiss of Springtime that makes the lonely winter seem long!” Only the greatest song ever written.” This time Jessica said simply “That's a beautiful song.”

WILLIE NELSON – Ain't Misbehavin' After midnight, just checked to see what's playing on Siriusly Sinatra: I'm hearing the late, great blues piano giant Joe Sample accompanying Willie Nelson on Fats Waller's best tune, AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' – from my favorite of Willie's albums of jazz standards, 'American Classic' -- recorded 14 years ago when Willie was only 76 (my age now!). Just re-reading at Wikipedia the “Personnel List” of jazz all-stars in the supporting cast: Willie Nelson - guitar, vocals Joe Sample - piano, arrangements Norah Jones - piano, vocals Mickey Raphael - harmonica Diana Krall - piano, vocals Anthony Wilson - guitar Lewis Nash - drums Jeff Hamilton - drums Christian McBride - bass guitar Robert Hurst - bass guitar Jim Cox - Hammond B3 organ Jeff Clayton - alto saxophone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq6d4maW2Xg Wikipedia - notes on the singer & the song: American Classic is the 57th studio album by American country music artist Willie Nelson, released on August 25, 2009. It focuses on the American popular songbook and standard jazz classics, and includes guest appearances by Norah Jones and Diana Krall. "Ain't Misbehavin'" is a 1929 stride jazz/early swing song. Andy Razaf wrote the lyrics to a score by Thomas "Fats" Waller and Harry Brooks[2] for the Broadway musical comedy play Connie's Hot Chocolates. At the intermission of Hot Chocolates at the Hudson Theatre, Louis Armstrong made his Broadway debut playing a trumpet solo on the song.[144] Fats Waller's original instrumental recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1984.[77]

DIANA KRALL – Autumn in New York And speaking of “Cinematography – of very high quality, alas uncredited” (see above) the intuitive genius that is YouTube just sent me another Diana Krall video – one seen by nearly 3 million fans, but not by me, until this minute. Coincidentally (or not) I'd just been reflecting on how seemingly old-fashioned black & white photography – far from being outdated technology – can still mysteriously affect us emotionally in ways that color can't. Case in point. Need I say, my new favorite version of 'Autumn in New York' – my favorite song composed (words and tune) by Vernon Duke “the summer of 1934.” [An informed note with this video] 2,958,745 views Sep 25, 2020 #NewYorkCity #Jazz #MusicVideo “Autumn in New York” – with breathtaking scenes of New York City filmed by Davis McCutcheon and directed by Mark Seliger – from Diana Krall’s new album ‘This Dream of You’, out now! Musicians: Christian McBride - Bass, Russell Malone - Guitar. Strings arranged by Alan Broadbent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5FVmJKPSrY