The longer I live the more I’m astounded by the beautiful
music of the Great American Songbook.
You think you’ve heard all those classic songs, ones which will endure
and transcend what passes as popular music today, and suddenly you hear a “new”
one (at least to me), either at a jazz jam or even on the old fashioned
radio.
One would think radio is a thing of the past, all the FM
stations mostly devoted to contemporary “music” until Legends Radio 100.3 FM was
founded in the Palm Beaches by professional broadcaster Dick Robinson, who is
also the founder of the Society for the
Preservation of the Great American Songbook. Even though local, it’s available world-wide
at LegendsRadio.com.
I remember pulling out of our driveway one day, listening
to 100.3 and hearing I Didn’t Know About
You. I said to Ann that song sounds
like one by Duke Ellington. His In a Sentimental Mood is one of my
favorites. I made a mental note of the song and looked it up in one of my Jazz
fake books when we returned home and sure enough, it’s by Duke Ellington, with
beautiful lyrics written by Bob Russell.
The version we heard on the radio was performed by one of
a jazz favorites, Jane Monheit who we saw a couple of years ago at the Colony on Palm Beach.
Her rendition of I Didn’t Know About You on YouTube is priceless. What a singer and performer.
I’ve incorporated I
Didn’t Know About You in my own piano repertoire, and since I haven’t
posted anything on YouTube in some time, I offer it here, so there is some documentation
of my love of this music. It is with
profound gratitude to the great musical artists who created this body of music,
loosely referred to as The Great American Songbook. It enriches our lives. May it endure!
