duaneiac

And I wonder how many singers who have never actually read the lyrics have sung "distingue traces" as "distant gay traces"?

Well, a lot of lyrics are not conversations, but monologues (internal or otherwise) -- and some great monologues at that: "It Never Entered My Mind", "My Foolish Heart", "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?", "Crazy He Calls Me", "Last Night When We Were Young". Some songs are one-sided conversations: "Change Partners", "One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)", "For All We Know", "What's New?", "Too Young To Go Steady", "I Thought About You". Some songs incorporate conversation into their structure, such as "Is That All There Is?" or "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face" which was written to be as easily spoken as sung since Rex Harrison was no singer. Great lyrics are great lyrics and some stand quite nicely on their own as poetry -- perhaps not "literary" poetry, but poetry nonetheless.. For example, on the face of it, "My huckleberry friend" has absolutely no meaning, but I think each of us can attach our own meaning to it and that's one goal of poetry.

The cover to Frank Sinatra's The Classic Duets CD, not one of those later abominable "duet" CDs.

I should be part of the natural audience for this CD, but I have shied away from it mainly because I know Annie Ross and Jon Hendricks are well past their prime and it would be painful to hear them sing today. I don't know how many tracks they appear on on this CD, but for me, it's best to remember them as they were. Sheila Jordan, Bob Dorough and Mark Murphy are all acquired tastes, but I like each of them, even the sound of their voices in their later years. I saw this CD in a store (yes, an actual CD store!) and it was filed uned "London Meader" as if that were a person's name.

Well, this has Phineas Fogg

As I remember it, in the liner notes to a CD compilation of songs from Mr. Prysock's Milestone recordings, there was this story. After Mr. Prysock's many years in the business and after a couple of albums for Milestone, there was frustration that he had never been nominated for a Grammy. This was during the early to mid 1980's when singers such as Tony Bennett, Mel Torme, Johnny Mathis and others were regular contenders for Best Male Pop Vocal (or whatever the category is called). The decision was made that there was less competition in the Best Pop Vocal Duet category, so on his next album they strategically included a couple of tracks in which he sang with some female vocalist whose name I forget (I'd never heard of her before or since). It worked and they got a Grammy nomination the next time around in that category but did not win.

The GNP/Crescendo record label sure was eclectic:

http://www.downbeat.com/default.asp?sect=news&subsect=news_detail&nid=2899 I have some of his GNP/Crescendo recordings (Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Kay Starr, etc.) and his label distributed Stan Kenton's Creative World label, so I have several of those as well. Jazz owes something to guys like Mr. Norman who work to make the music happen, whether live in concert venues or preserved on recordings. May he Rest In Peace.

Hmmmm . . . I'm wondering exactly when Mr. Sinatra and "his people" always pushed this line. Was it during the 1940's when he was either the most popular or the second most popular (behind Bing Crosby) male singer in the country? Was it during the 1950's when, following his From Here To Eternity comeback, his recordings were perhaps even more popular than ever and he was a regular presence on radio, television, nightclubs, concert stages and in films? Was it during the 1960's when, despite the youth culture shift in the music business, he was still hitting the record charts with songs like "That's Life", "Strangers In The Night", "It Was a Very Good Year", "Something Stupid" and "My Way"? Was it during the 1970's when, after returning from his "retirement", no one really expected his records to make the pop charts any longer and yet he still managed to do so towards the end of that decade with "Theme From New York, New York"? I'm a Sinatra fan and I've quite frankly never heard this "line" that was "always pushed", so I'm curious where and when this notion comes from.

" . . . a compilation of holiday classics performed live by the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. Special guests on Big Band Holidays are some of today’s commanding new voices in jazz: René Marie, Cécile McLorin Salvant and Gregory Porter.."

I don't think it's a matter of when the lyrics were added. Weren't some of Duke Ellington's songs originally instrumentals, but then lyrics were added later (with his permission/approval, of course)? I'm thinking "Satin Doll" (not my favorite Johnny Mercer lyrics, btw) was done like that, for example. I think it's more a matter of what a lyricist is attempting to add lyrics to. Mr. Mercer added lyrics to Ellington/Strayhorn's melody, not to any specific solos by the band members. The songs included in the Great American Songbook, generally speaking, all have strong melodies and the lyrics -- god, bad or indifferent -- were designed to complement those melodies. It's a different ballgame trying to add lyrics to improvised instrumental solos. Unlike the composers of the GAS, the jazz soloist isn't likely thinking at the time he/she is recording, "Can I improvise a musical structure which will be creative and accessible enough that a large number of people will want to buy the sheet music and learn to play it for themselves and for their friends and family?". There was a time when the Manhattan Transfer's version of "Birdland" was a hit and got a lot of radio airplay. It was and may still be, for the general public, better known than Weather Report's version. Jon Hendricks' lyrics for that song are okay, they flow well, but the song's melody and structure was very strong to begin with. The same cannot be said of a lot of bebop and post-bop songs. One of my favorite Man Tran albums was Swing, in which they did vocalese versions of many swing classics, such as "Moten Swing", "Air Mail Special", "King Porter Stomp" and "Nuages". That material works quite well. They also did an entire album of Chick Corea songs. Some of that material works better than others for me. I'm generally okay with vocalese. It depends on the performer, as some are more convincing at it than others. The lyrics don't have to be profound, they just have to fit the melodic structure and tolerable to the ear. The lyrics added to "I Remember Clifford" aren't the greatest, but they get me every time. But hey, I really like "Tulip or Turnip" as well, so what do I know?

Well, almost . . .

Well, Mr. Sinatra wasn't even making all the decisions earlier on, not with Mitch Miller in charge. "Mama Will Bark" or "There's a Flaw In My Flue", any one? Even dreck like "High Hopes" and "Love And Marriage" must have been recorded as calculated (and successful) attempts at a hit rather than out of any intrinsic musical merit. It's been years since I listened to it, but i kinda liked the late-60's A Man Alone album. And he handled some 60's material rather well. I like his version of "By The Time I Get To Phoenix", for example. But clearly he had no use for songs like "Downtown" or "Mrs. Robinson" and should never have bothered to record them. That She Shot Me Down album is anoften overlooked winner. "Good Thing Going", "Hey Look, No Crying", "Monday Morning Quarterback" are all effective as Sinatra songs.

Another year older and cooler!

I got an email from Deep Discount today saying my copy had just shipped.

As one of their featured "Daily Deals", for today only Deep Discount has the 4 disc DVD set of the Star Trek Animated Series on sale for only $6.89!! http://www.deepdiscount.com/star-trek-the-animated-series/032429233615

From his obit in the NY Times: Mr. Gibson had a widely varied career. An expert on Oriental rugs and cloisonne, he also wrote fiction, worked as an investment banker and made a fortune by forming the Water Pik company, which he sold in 1967. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/20/arts/dick-gibson-jazz-producer-and-fan-72.html

Saw the SF JAZZ Collective in SF tonight. Their featured composer this year is Michael Jackson. Due to heavier than expected traffic and the parking angels looking upon me with less charity this week, I arrived about halfway into the first number, an MJ tune I recognized, but could not name. They also played his, "Blame It On The Boogie", "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" and "Thriller" (complete with Vincent Price voice over). Band member originals included a very good piece by Edward Simon called "The Beauty of Space", "Fall Prelude" by Miguel Zenon, "Grey Skies In Baltimore" by Warren Wolf and "Franklin and Fell" by Sean Jones.