Showing posts with label Great American Songbook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Great American Songbook. Show all posts

Saturday, February 9, 2019

A Diva Blessing


A couple of months ago our friends Karen and Bob suggested we join them at Del Ray’s Arts Garage where Ann Hampton Callaway was performing.  As much as I love the Great American Songbook, memories of a parking nightmare in Delray made me hesitant to go.  That experience is a story onto itself, not worth going into here.  Easy, they said, we’ll drive and park, so we said you’re on.

The indoor parking garage was full to the third level but there Bob found a space.  No doubt, I thought, if I drove, it wouldn’t be there and I’d end up driving around in circles as I did one evening in Delray (ok, I said I wouldn’t go into it, but the memory lingers on).

The Arts Garage performance venue has been configured into a cabaret, six to a table, bring your own food and drink.  Karen supplied a delicious cream and fruit tart for dessert and Ann brought the wine (coffee for me).

My seat was ideal (thanks Karen!); with a full view of the piano, a Kawai Grand.  You rarely see a Kawai being used professionally, the instrument of choice usually being a Steinway or a Yamaha.  I have a Yamaha baby grand which I love, but I almost bought a Kawai as I think it has a brighter sound, so ideally suited for playing The Great American Songbook.

As I said, we were seated at a table for six and our two other tablemates turned out to be a man who we used to watch on NYC TV years ago, Bill Boggs, who had an interview show with some of the entertainment greats, and to this day does a professional speaking tour discussing those people, so watching the Diva perform with Bill and his partner, Jane was serendipitous.  This is how I remember him way back when we were in NYC, a photo of him interviewing Chuck Berry.

We’ve seen other great Divas in a cabaret setting before, and three special ones spring to mind, including a rare US appearance at the Colony by perhaps the greatest living female jazz singer, Stacey Kent.

Unfortunately, it was at a time before I had a smart phone and did not have a camera on me, but seeing her and meeting her was a thrill.  She’s been called the “Frank Sinatra” of divas, because of her unique way of phrasing a song.  Her husband backs her up on the sax but does not overwhelm her.  If she ever returns to Florida or to NYC while we are in that area, we will be there.

We also saw another fabulous Diva at the Colony, Jane Monheit, who has a distinctive style and great range with her voice.  She too performs with a back up group headed by her husband on drums.

When we lived in New York we were lucky enough to go over to a small Supper Club on the Upper East Side and there we sat right at a front table, mesmerized by the jazz legend, the late, great Carmen McCrea.  I think I have all her CDs.  Jazz doesn’t get any better than that.  She too was backed by a combo she probably worked with for years.

Of course we’ve seen other singers, Keely Smith at the Colony once, but usually on stage in an auditorium, as we once saw Ann Hampton Callaway at the Eissey Campus Theatre of Palm Beach State College many years ago.  She was accompanist by, arguably, the most original jazz pianist today, Bill Mays.  There is a world of difference, however, between a stage performance and cabaret.

The obvious difference is the intimacy created, resulting in the give and take between the performer and the audience.  One feeds on the other.  You get the sense that we’re all part of the Great American Songbook “family.”  And it is a family that loves its progenitors, the composers, the lyricists, the performers who have stylized this great body of music.

Ann Hampton Callaway preserves and has become part of this wonderful tradition in her program “Jazz Goes to the Movies.”  Her program fully realizes the breadth of the great songs which emerged from film.  In addition to the obvious ones, there are endless streams of classics that have come from lesser watched films, such as "This Time the Dream's on Me" by Harold Arlen, and lyrics by Johnny Mercer for the 1941 film “Blues in the Night,” just one of the many songs sung by Callaway during her two part performance.

Her song selection was broad.  I wrote them all down, but I’ll only mention a few of the 18 (yes, 18!) songs she sang.  Naturally, I’m going to focus on some I love to play on the piano myself.

This has to be at the top of the list, the not often performed song by Henry Mancini with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, “Two for the Road.”  Undoubtedly she chose to perform this wonderful song, I think Mancini’s best, because the co star of the film of the same title, the actor so many of us watched “grow up” on film from his first performance in “Tom Jones,” Albert Finney had just passed away.  This is the same song which Ann (my Ann) and I chose to “perform” at our son’s wedding last August, me at the piano and Ann reading (as, unfortunately, my Ann can’t sing – and neither can I) the evocative lyrics, so appropriate for Jonathan and his bride, Tracie.   

We hung onto every word as Callaway lovingly performed this number.

I interject an important observation here regarding her performance, unique among the cabaret divas I mentioned above, and that is she accompanied herself on the piano.  I mentioned above the Kawai piano.  I guess I simply expected a pianist and a bass player to come out to accompany her.  Oh, it is so, so much better when a great singer and pianist are one.  Her piano chops may not be in the league of a Bill Mays, but in accompanying herself, she is able to ring out every drop of emotion from The Great American Songbook.  It’s as if her piano and voice are but one instrument, in perfect harmony and symmetry. 

Her opening number, “From this Moment On” demonstrated her remarkable range, her smoky voice, and her ability to scat.  During another number, again one of the strengths of a cabaret setting, was taking the audience through a scat lesson and we found ourselves scatting along with her.  Really fun stuff.

Another diversion, about a third of the way through her program, she finally noticed a man in a front table and she was somewhat startled, saying, “Oh, my ex husband is here!”  Well, that got the audience’s attention, and from that point on, there were some very funny, but harmless jabs sent his way by Callaway.  She knows how to work an audience, including giving attribution to our table mate, Bill Boggs.

She incorporates all styles in her piano accompaniment, from a bluesy feeling playing and singing “As Time Goes By” and some bouncing boogie-woogie in her tribute to Fred Astaire (she knows his sister) in “Let’s Face the Music and Dance.”

Her jazz sensibility on the piano came out in “This Can’t be Love,” again demonstrating her incredible voice range.

One of my favorites when I play the piano is “Folks Who Live on the Hill,” by Jerome Kern, and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II from the 1937 film “High, Wide, and Handsome.”  But, oh, my heart be still listening to Callaway play and sing this song, channeling Peggy Lee with whom the song is closely associated.

Her rendition of “At Last” Etta James's signature song but more recently Beyoncé Knowles’ “big song” demonstrated the power of Callaway’s voice.  Rarely does a singer have the gift of the subtle and power as well.  It was breathtaking.

Callaway is not only a performer, but a composer as well, and those skills were put on full display in a playful impromptu performance she composed and sung on the spot taking silly suggestions from the audience; a blind man, a pizza maker, meets a woman who makes burrata, they make love on the beach in Del Ray in a one night stand, where they lose their clothes while swimming, the details not being important other than her ability to compose in real time.  She also jokingly “tuned” her voice to the piano, easily singing a half step below or above a note to display her voice control and musical sensibilities.

At one point, she gave a “diva blessing” to the audience.  In sum, it was an exhilarating night.  There is nothing in the world like the joy from hearing the Great American Songbook, performed by a woman completely in command of her musical gifts.  In fact, her warm personality, eager to be with her audience in every way, happy to greet them on the way out, made it a perfect evening of “being with family.”  Thanks to our friends, Karen and Bob, for bringing us to see Ann and to all those who continue to perpetuate The Great American Songbook, performers and audiences alike. We are all truly blessed!



Monday, May 7, 2018

Under the Radar


When we think of the great body of work which constitutes the Great American Songbook, there is a tendency to forget the great composers who never wrote a Broadway show but whose songs are as much part of our musical heritage.  I’m reminded of this while reading William Zinsser’s Easy to Remember; The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs.  Perhaps I’ll have more to say on the book when I’m finished.  Yet, I will say that the book, for me at least, is fascinating, as Zinsser’s passion for the music is evident on every page, it’s encyclopedic, and finally, he frequently discusses the songs’ construction, both musically and lyrically.  This is my kind of tribute to the music I love.

And, yet, there are omissions.  A composer such as Henry Mancini gets but a passing mention, only because of working with the “vernacular poet” of lyricism, Johnny Mercer, on the song “Moon River.”  But a glaring total omission is the work of Johnny Mandel, perhaps not a household name, unless you hear one of his songs which you would swear was written by someone else.  His oeuvre is not extensive, but he’s written a wide range of idiosyncratic songs and teamed up with some interesting lyricists.  He has, most notably, worked extensively as an arranger for well known singers of his time as well as playing with some of the big bands of the 40s such as Jimmy Dorsey and Count Basie.

He too worked with Johnny Mercer the lyricist on perhaps one of his best known songs, written for a movie, “Emily.” Tony Bennett, Sinatra, and a host of others have recorded it.  The jazz community has adopted this work as their own, particularly the superb interpretation by Bill Evans, a version of which can be heard and seen here, Bill Evans in an intimate setting, Helsinki, 1969.

My mother’s favorite song was “The Shadow of Your Smile,” another film song he composed.  Whenever I visited her at my boyhood home from which I had long moved she’d ask me to sit at our old piano, by then partly out of tune, and play what I didn’t realize was a Mandel piece.

And talk about unusual, he composed the “Song from M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless)”, which is also now played in jazz venues.

His work with lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman produced two classic pieces, the mystically evocative “A Waltz from Somewhere” which reaches back to another era and one of my other favorites, “Where Do You Start?” about how does one disentangle one’s life from another’s?….”So many habits that we’ll have to break and yesterdays we’ll have to take apart.”

Yet the song which landed me in the sea of Johnny Mandel songs, never tying them altogether until I bought the composer’s Songbook, was “You Are There” as sung by today’s first lady of song, Stacey Kent.



Her rendition of “You Are There" really elevates the composer’s intention: “To be done in a rubato feeling throughout”

Dave Frishberg, a musician who is sometimes best known for his satirical lyrics, wrote the words to this moving ballad and his collaboration with Mandel produced a classic, the story of a lover who is not just absent but is dead.  The ethereal quality of Mandel’s music works with the lyrics:

In the evening
When the kettle's on for tea
An old familiar feeling's settles over me
And it's your face I see
And I believe that you are there
In a garden
When I topped to touch a rose
And feel the petal soft and sweet against my nose
I smile and I suppose
That somehow maybe you are there
When I'm dreaming
And I find myself awake without a warning
Then I rub my eyes and fantasize
And all at once I realize
It's morning
And my fantasy is fading like a distant star at dawn
My dearest dream is gone
I often think there's just one thing to do
Pretend that dream is true
And tell myself that you are there

I offer my own piano rendition of this wonderful work.  Thank you Johnny Mandel for all your contributions to the Great American Songbook!

Friday, April 20, 2018

Emmet Cahill--- Remember that Name


Emmet Cahill

The applause was thunderous, the audience in raptures, a young man singing his heart out, so much talent and personality wrapped up in a dimpled package.  Here is a young singer on a solo tour with hundreds of ardent fans making their way to see and hear Emmet Cahill.  He is an Irish tenor who has performed with the renowned Irish singing group, Celtic Thunder, all over the world.  On Thursday night, he made his second appearance in the West Palm Beach area, again accompanied on several numbers by the Robert Sharon Chorale, the 84-voice-strong local community chorale. 

Cahill is from Mullingar, County Westmeath, the same setting of John Patrick Shanley’s play Outside Mullingar. Irish theatre is one of my favorite theatre experiences so I was particularly intrigued by the opportunity to see the performer whose debut album, Emmet Cahill's Ireland, went to number one on the Billboard World Music chart.

 He made his Carnegie Hall debut in New York City recently and this fall he will sing in 75 cities across North America with Celtic Thunder on their 10th anniversary "X" tour.  But for now he is embarking on a multi city tour as a soloist which will take him to nearly a score of other US cities during the next two months.  So expect to see him somewhere!  He promises to return to the West Palm Beach area sometime in the future as well.

Cahill played to a packed house and it’s no wonder.  He is one of the most dynamic and personable, not to mention immensely talented, singers I've seen.  His program on Thursday naturally included several Irish classics such as “Danny Boy”, “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling”, “An Irish Lullaby” and “Wild Mountain Thyme.”  “I am very proud to be Irish,” explains Cahill. “I want people to feel a real connection to the songs, as well as the people and the stories that they represent.  There has always been a special relationship between the Irish and American people and I want to further enrich that friendship.”

As his performance was in a religious setting, the Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in West Palm Beach, and he has strong religious roots beginning his singing career at his own local church in Mullingar, he sang several moving hymns including a tearful, heartfelt performance of “Amazing Grace.”

His tenor voice is strong but clear.  He manages to bring forth so much emotion and clarity with his voice, an instrument onto itself, with never an inaudible word.  Cahill can deconstruct a song to certain simplicity so not one emotive moment is lost on the audience.  It doesn’t hurt that his accompanist, Seamus Brett, is an extraordinarily gifted pianist who knows how to showcase this rising 27 year old star.

Seamus Brett Accompanies Emmet Cahill

They even challenged the audience to suggest six or seven songs which they would perform as unrehearsed requests and then extemporaneously they strung together a medley of those songs.  One such request was “O Sole Mio."  Enrico Caruso and Mario Lanza would have been proud, maybe envious, of Cahill’s rendition which demonstrated his classical vocal training at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin.

But Irish folk songs and liturgical hymns are not Cahill’s only strengths.  He is equally comfortable with the Great American Songbook and Broadway.  In fact he said that Rodgers and Hammerstein’s work is among his favorites and to illustrate, he delivered a rendition of “Some Enchanted Evening,” wringing out all the emotion and depth from that song.  His rendition of “This is the Moment” from Jekyll and Hyde was thrilling.  The nostalgic favorite “Moon River” was as beautiful as those Irish folk songs.

He said that among the songs he first sang on stage as a professional was “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables.  He is much too young to play Jean Valjean, but you wouldn’t know it from his masterly performance.  I’ve never been able to hear that song – or play it on the piano – without a tear in my eye, and his performance, with so much emotion, brought the house down with yet another standing ovation.  Clearly, so much of this young man’s future might be directed into the oeuvre of Broadway and the Great American Songbook.  He has the presence and that rare emotive gift for those songs, while never having to desert his unique Irish folk roots.

His YouTube performance of “Bring Him Home” from a 2015 USA tour when he was only 24 years old, clearly presages his brilliant future.  We look forward to seeing him again, soon.  Thank you Emmet!

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Thursday, March 8, 2018

I Didn’t Know About You



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.


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!